Ten years of skin health science in a world of change

Hitting a ten-year marker often gives one pause to look back and reflect. You might wonder where those years went. Other times, it’s almost impossible to get your head around just how much has changed.

It’s ten years now since the formation of the Skin Health Alliance and, as we look back, it’s been a heady combination of both. Not just for us, but for the world itself.

A decade of dramatic change

It’s been a tumultuous decade and no mistake. Politically and environmentally, the world has been on a rollercoaster. And then, to top it all off, the arrival of Covid has drastically transformed pretty much every aspect of our daily lives even more over the course of just over a year. No-one has been left unaffected by all this dramatic change.

However, one interesting consequence of all this drama is a clear shift in what influences consumer choices. Research we commissioned demonstrates that whilst in 2019 professional recommendation was only a decision-making factor with 23% of those we spoke to, by 2020 that figure had made a substantial jump to 32%. All of which suggests how the already significant value of accreditations has grown in these uncertain times as consumers are increasingly looking to science for reassurance, trust and expertise. It also demonstrates how they are listening more to qualified professionals whose guidance is based on sound science and evidence-based research.

Skin health and the health of the world

As well as consumers becoming more aware -– and more demanding – when it comes to product safety, so it is that our detailed knowledge of skin health and the science behind it, accrued over years, becomes more important to more brands. As consumers are asking more questions, it falls to us to provide answers to those questions. 

Which is why this article marks the launch of an ongoing series covering our learnings over the last ten years. The series – which you can follow via LinkedIn – will share our insights and findings into topics such as nappy ‘chemical burns’, aging skin and whether it can be reversed, the importance of hygiene in a post-covid world – to name just a few. We’re also keen to discuss topics relevant to your brand and your consumers, let us know what you would like to hear about.

Ten years of the Skin Health Alliance

When we set out, our mission was to provide a means by which products, services and brands around the world could prove to consumers that their products had been independently verified as skin safe and efficacious. In that time we have funded research, convened summits and conventions, and raised the visibility of dermatological science.

We’ve established a professional dermatological accreditation that reassures people that brand products have been independently verified as skin safe – all this across nearly 800 products, 60 partnerships, and over 40 brands such as Gillette, Water Wipes, ATG Gloves, Lotus and Asda and many more. And in so doing we have helped support partners and educate consumers by tackling myths with science – science frequently made possible through our support.  

We’re incredibly proud of all that we’ve achieved: we’ve achieved our mission and brought together a global network of medical professionals, research scientists and partner brands and accrued a huge wealth of knowledge.  

Here’s to the future

Looking ahead it’s clear that there is still so much more to do, and that we are uniquely positioned to do it. 

As well as our global dermatological accreditation – underpinned by a scientific review performed by our team of independent dermatologists – we also offer an expert PR and communications role to help our partner brands tell the story of the science they’re undertaking. In this new role, we will be delivering everything from educational digital platforms to brand-amplifying apps, media releases and everything else in the communications toolkit. We will also continue to be a key contributor at international skin conferences alongside our ongoing commitment to publishing new research in the world’s leading medical and scientific journals.

And by creating access to, and awareness of, the scientific insights and learnings that so many of us are unlocking individually, we’re very much looking forward to working together with our brand partners – by keeping them informed of the latest scientific advances most relevant to them, and by ensuring their story reaches everyone that needs to hear it.  

If you’d like to find out how we can make your skin health expertise work for you, please get in touch by emailing - [email protected].