New Scientist reports that ‘cosmetics manufacturers are keen to appear cutting edge, and often blind consumers with scientific jargon. But buzzwords like nanocapsules – currently one of their favourites – could be their undoing.’
Scare stories about nanotechnology turning the world to ‘grey goo’ have led Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP for South East England, to call for new regulations – and one of the targets she has in her sights is the cosmetics industry. Her website claims that ‘thousands of women are acting as unwitting ‘guinea pigs’ for the cosmetics industry…with many products containing ingredients manufactured by ‘nanotechnology’.’
Famous facial products, such as L’Oreal Plenitude and Lancome’s Flash Bronzer Self Tanning Face Gel, do indeed contain billions of nanoscopic capsules designed to help the skin absorb the cream’s active ingredients. Though there’s not a goo-making nanobot in sight, Lucas claims to be ‘horrified to find nanotech products sitting innocently in my bathroom cabinet’.
We wonder what she expected them to do to her. Drain the colour from her face and make it go all mushy?