Would you spend £75 on a cream that says it slims you in your sleep? Can it really work or is it - as diet experts warn - just a big fat con?
- - Creators of Épochas claim it sheds weight on waist, inner thighs and chin
- - Scientists have accused manufacturers of 'preying on vulnerable people'
- - Advertising Standards Authority says it has no power to investigate claims
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Controversy: Épochas claims its new 'body sculpting' cream burns fat while its users sleep
It sounds too good to be true – a skin cream that helps you to slim while you sleep.
But that is the claim made by the creators of Épochas, a new ‘body sculpting’ cream said to help burn fat from specific areas – including the waist, inner thighs and chin.
However, scientists have dismissed the product as a con, accusing its manufacturers of ‘preying on vulnerable people’.
Despite their concerns, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says it has no power to investigate the claims unless it receives a complaint about the product.
A 75ml pot of cream and a 50ml tube of serum are being sold together on the Épochas website at the ‘launch promotion price’ of £74.95.
Customers are advised to apply the cream in the morning and the serum at night to ‘lose inches’.
According to the Épochas website, they provide a ‘gentle non-surgical method to assist the removal of accumulated fat molecule deposits in specific regions of the body’.
The publicity for the products states: ‘In our UK trials, 24 women lost 41 inches in just ten days.’
Formulated by make-up artist Frank Roman and his doctor son Carlos, the cream and serum are made in a small Sussex factory.
The ingredients of the cream include elastin, green tea and the chilli extract capsaicin.
Mr Roman said: ‘I have been working in cosmetics for 50 years, and I’ve heard so many claims you take them with a pinch of salt. So when we tested this and found it worked well, it was a shock.
‘We’ve found that with this cream and serum, you can lose inches in your sleep.’ Susan Gedge, 57, agreed to test the product despite her biochemist daughter Louisa telling her it was unlikely to have an effect.
Mrs Gedge, from Guestling in East Sussex, said she dropped from size 16 to 14 in ten days. She said: ‘Before, I had a roll of fat hanging over my waist. That’s gone. I was amazed.’ Épochas said the results of the 24-person trial were mirrored in a second trial, run by a GP in Hastings.
Dr Craig Namvar said he decided to test the product after it helped him lose two inches from his 35in waist. He pitted the firm’s products against Johnson’s, which make no ‘body sculpting’ claims. The volunteers were not told which they were receiving.
Dr Namvar said: ‘Every woman in the Épochas group lost centimetres from their waists.’ Those using Johnson’s either stayed the same or expanded a little in girth, he added.
Scientists have dismissed the product as a con, accusing its manufacturers of 'preying on vulnerable people'
Dr Namvar insists he has no financial involvement with Épochas. However, the firm’s chief executive Stephen Finch admitted neither trial was independently checked. He said the products were licensed as cosmetics, which was ‘not so rigorous’ compared with obtaining a licence as a medicinal product.
Épochas’s claims have been criticised by the British Dietetic Association, which gives science-based dietary advice.
Lead dietician Sioned Quirke said: ‘They should be reported to the ASA. They are preying on vulnerable people. Not even changing your diet can help you lose fat in a certain area. It comes off from everywhere.’
She said the trials were so small as to be statistically meaningless, and that no cream in history had been proven to help shift fat.
An ASA spokesman said firms have to prove claims – but only if a complaint is made to the regulator.
The UK Advertising Codes state firms ‘must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective’.
In 2012, the ASA ordered cosmetics firm Rodial to stop advertising an ‘anti-cellulite gel’ using the term ‘body sculpture’, because the name ‘implied the product would have an impact on a user’s body shape’.
THE VERDICT: It pains me to say it, but I'm an inch thinner, says Adam Lee Potter
Adam Lee Potter, pictured with wife Deborah, claims he lost an inch off his waist after three days
Effortlessly lose your beer gut? In days? Lead me to it!
The last time my figure came under public scrutiny – a feature on chest waxing in 1993 – the photographer told me: ‘I thought you’d be fatter.’ Sadly, 20 years on, it was the other way round.
But I was horrified – when the tape measure round my waist hit 37in. People have clearly been lying to me (and not just Gap).
Now, I am as sceptical as the next middle-aged man when it comes to weight-loss gimmicks. If you want to shave inches off your waist, the real answer is simple – do more, eat less. I am, if nothing else, the son of a doctor.
But we’re all suckers for the easy fix, especially pre-Christmas. Aggressively rubbing a cream into your belly is clearly preferable to sit-ups and a daily lettuce enema.
I have to be honest: I don’t believe in this cobblers. So, it pains me to say that – after three days – I have lost an inch off my waist. Mostly, I believe it’s the shock caused by being measured. But, with these results, why not give it a go?
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