AHA Souffle Magic - 12% = 8.4%

[merton]

Hi Dr. Todorov,

Earlier somewhere on this site I had questioned whether the % of glycolic acid was in relation to the whole of compound or, was in relation to the standardized cosmetic 70% solution after liquifying the solid crystals.

On the side of the "Alpha Hydrox(tm R) AHA Souffle" product it is further described on the front of its' box as, "12% Glycolic AHA Soothing Vitamins & Anti-Irritants".

Upon seeing this in the store this seemed odd because I had been researching FDA guidelines (for independent unrelated purposes) and had read that AHA glycolic acid products were approved up to 10% if they had the sunburn/sunscreen warning/recommendation that are on most AHA products today. [much higher concentrations being for licenced cosmetolegists and even higher for M.D.'s of course].

Here was a 12% representation.

On the side of the product box it states, "After 100% pure AHA crystals are liquifed for cosmetic use, percentage of AHA is based on a 70% solution".

If my math is correct it would mean that this product is really 8.4% AHA rather than 12%.

This would conform to the FDA rule.

With respect to the lipo-polypeptides the difference between the the actual quantity of the abosolute, which is measured in ppm's and the percentage of the standardized solution makes sense because 1) there is such a wide variation between these two, 2) explaining the difference would result in even more confusion for consumers 3)standardiztion is controlled by a single worldwide patentholder 4) very few entities have scales that can weigh out microns and 5) there aren't any safety issues at play.

Except for #2 above none of these factors are true with respect to AHA concentrations, particularly if there are two different industrywide standards at play, most importantly, those concerning safety. (granted that safety factors may not actually come into play until higher concentrations are compared by a unsuspecting consumer applying these varying standards) .

As the concentration rises the numeric variance between the two standards increases exponentially.

So my questions are which standard, if either, are representative of those products who don't put this conversion warning on the box? Is this an industywide system or is this product unique in this respect?

Thanks again for your excellent infopacks.

-merton