True Botanicals is a cosmetics brand that’s gotten a lot of attention recently for their clean and sustainable formulations. The brand describes its products as “natural bio-compatible skincare” which is “clinically proven” to be effective.
But are True Botanicals products potent enough to justify the incredibly high prices? Is the brand really "clinically proven" to work? Does the brand use any unhealthy ingredients? And is True Botanicals better or worse than other popular luxury skincare brands like La Roche Posay?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in two of the most popular True Botanicals products (Chebula Extreme Cream and Pure Radiance Oil) to give our take on whether or not they're likely to be effective, and whether or not they're healthy.
We'll also share our concerns about some of the brand's clinical claims, feature a video from an esthetician sharing her concerns about True Botanicals, and compare the brand to other popular luxury skincare brands to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- Chebula Extreme Cream is likely to have an anti-aging effect
- Both products reviewed contained at least one inactive ingredient we consider unhealthy
- We do not currently recommend True Botanicals
Chebula Extreme Cream Review
Chebula Extreme Cream contains 48 individual ingredients, which are shown below:
At the time of updating this article, this full ingredient list is not accessible on the product page of the brand's website, which we consider to be a consumer safety issue.
Consumers deserve to know what's in the products they're putting on their face, and we urge True Botanicals to re-publish this information.
This cream has a number of research-backed active ingredients.
Sodium hyaluronate should have an anti-aging effect. It’s a sodium salt of hyaluronic acid with a lower molecular weight.
Hyaluronic acid has been shown in medical research to be a “skin rejuvenating biomedicine” which reduces wrinkles and improves skin tightness and elasticity.
Green tea extract inhibits certain enzymes that accelerate skin aging, as we documented in our green mask stick review.
Lactobacillus ferment is a probiotic ingredient that can reduce skin damage, repair the skin barrier and reduce acne lesion size when applied topically, according to a clinical trial published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science.
Tocopherols (vitamin E) are clinically shown to protect skin from UV damage, and also to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer.
Coconut extract was shown to have anti-inflammatory and skin-healing effects in a 2017 clinical trial.
Coconut also increased the expression of collagen in the skin, which suggests an anti-aging effect.
There are only two inactive ingredients in this formulation we consider to be somewhat questionable from a health perspective.
Limonene and linalool are fragrance ingredients that may be sensitizing to skin, but we consider these to be healthier than generic "fragrance."
Overall, we consider Chebula Extreme Cream to be a high-quality cosmetic formulation, likely to have an anti-aging effect and to support skin repair.
We don't currently recommend this product due to the fragrance ingredients highlighted above, but we consider it to be significantly superior to the average anti-aging skin cream we've reviewed to date on Illuminate Health.
Our Issues With "Clinically Proven" Claims
True Botanicals has a Research page on their site where they claim their products are “Grounded in Research” and “clinically proven to perform:”
Unfortunately, the “clinical research” the company is referring to doesn’t appear to be published in any peer-reviewed journals. The company fails to even cite the full study referred to in the above graphic, at the time of updating this article.
The brand fails to link to the full research study; only providing summaries of the results.
When we cite clinical research on Illuminate Health, we're citing results from clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals. This is the gold standard of product research, as it ensures a high bar of study methodology.
We urge consumers to entirely disregard claims of efficacy made by skincare brands based on company-funded studies that don't appear in peer-reviewed journals.
In our opinion, the risk of bias is too high in such studies for the results to have any value to consumers.
Pure Radiance Oil Review
The ingredients in True Botanicals Pure Radiance Oil are shown below:
Like Chebula Extreme Cream, this product contains a large number of research-backed active ingredients.
Sclerocarya birrea (marula) seed oil was shown to naturally moisturize and hydrate the skin in a has been studied for dermatological effect in a clinical trial in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
Cannabis sativa (hemp) seed oil is clinically shown to alleviate dryness and other skin problems that arise as a result of aging.
Rubus idaeus (raspberry) seed oil is a plant-derived source of vitamin A, and according to a medical review published in the Plants journal, this makes it a prime anti-aging compound:
“Vitamin A is a popular antioxidant and ingredient in anti-aging skincare products because it adds moisture, reduces the appearance of wrinkles and smooths skin texture.”
Argan oil is clinically shown to improve skin elasticity, which suggests an anti-aging effect, as we documented in our review of Jones Road Miracle Balm.
Silybum marianum (milk thistle) seed oil is an effective anti-aging ingredient due to its photoprotective capacity.
A 2019 medical review on this compound documented that it can prevent photoaging (damage to skin from UV rays), reverse effects of photoaging and cause skin to regenerate at the cellular level.
This oil contains several inactive ingredients that may be questionable from a health perspective.
Farnesol, geraniol, linalool, citronellol, limonene and citral are all fragrance ingredients.
Benzyl benzoate is a synthetic preservative.
Overall, we consider True Botanicals Pure Radiance Oil likely to have an anti-aging effect due to its many research-backed active ingredients.
We don't currently recommend this product due to the fragrance ingredients, and we consider it to be inferior to Chebula Extreme Cream from a health perspective because of the increased number of fragrance additives.
That being said, we do consider this product more likely to be effective and healthier than the average anti-aging cosmetic formulation that we've reviewed to date on Illuminate Health.
Esthetician vs. True Botanicals
A popular YouTube creator and esthetician named Cassandra Bankson has a video sharing her issues with Olivia Wilde's (celebrity and True Botanicals spokesperson) marketing video about True Botanicals products.
The video has over 100,000 views, and while we don't necessarily agree with all of Cassandra's arguments, the video may be entertaining:
True Botanicals vs. Popular Luxury Skincare
Here's how True Botanicals compares to other popular luxury skincare brands in terms of formulation quality, in our opinion:
VouPre
Contains exotic active ingredients like gold, which is clinically shown to help protect the skin from damage when applied topically.
Contains a synthetic preservative combination clinically shown to be toxic, so True Botanicals gets the edge from a health standpoint.
Winner: True Botanicals
La Roche Posay
La Roche Posay claims to be recommended by over 90,000 dermatologists worldwide, but our analysis of their formulations revealed several unhealthy inactive ingredients including talc, which can be contaminated with benzene (a carcinogen).
True Botanicals wins from a healthiness perspective.
Winner: True Botanicals
Depology
This K-beauty brand contains research-backed active ingredients and the formulations we analyzed were free from any unhealthy inactive ingredients.
Winner: Depology
Our Clean Skincare Pick
MindBodyGreen Best Skin+ is our top anti-aging skin supplement.
It contains orange extract which is clinically shown to increase skin moisturization, skin elasticity and skin radiance.
This supplement also contains astaxanthin which is clinically shown to cause "wrinkle formation reduction."
This supplement is free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
True Botanicals Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Highly potent formulations
- Better-than-average brand
- Both products reviewed should have anti-aging effect
- Both products reviewed should have moisturizing effect
- Mostly positive online customer reviews
- Free of generic "fragrance"
- Free of artificial colorants
Cons:
- Expensive
- Some formulations contain individual fragrance ingredients
- Brand makes questionable clinical claims of efficacy
