Dermatologically tested? That doesn’t mean a thing

WHEN you look at a product that’s designed for use on the skin, you’ll often see the words ‘ dermatologically tested’ printed on the side.

This sounds reassuring, as if it has been approved to a gold standard for effectiveness and lack of adverse effects. In fact, it means nothing. There is no industry-agreed set of tests that needs to be conducted on products for them to claim they are ‘dermatologically tested’.

We don’t know what tests were carried out on the product — or even if it passed or failed.