Hi, I'm u/barefacedtofu on Reddit.
My skincare journey began when, at 28, I suddenly developed stubborn adult acne. Worse, a large sebaceous cyst grew on my left cheek and became infected. It had to be removed through incision and drainage, leaving a gaping hole in my face that took weeks to heal.I had had beautiful skin up until then, so the cyst, the acne, and the scarring and discolouration they left behind put a huge dent in my self-confidence.
I immediately set about trying to find ways to restore the condition of my skin. It wasn't long before I grew sick and tired of all the BS that many beauty "influencers" spread.
As someone who had been trained as a biologist, I wanted to analyse ALL of the evidence for a particular ingredient, product or treatment, not just 1 or 2 cherry-picked studies.
This desire for a trusted resource on skincare led me to spend hundreds of hours over many months to create Wisderm. Now that I'm in my 30s, my research also guides me on how to age more gracefully. I hope you find it equally useful.
No, everything written on Wisderm.com is the opinion of its contributors, is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for the advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified medical professional.
The information provided on Wisderm.com regarding skincare ingredients, products and treatments is based on research that may not be complete or up-to-date, and is not a guarantee of efficacy or safety.
Always consult a doctor to get proper medical advice or treatment for your skin, including possible side effects from skincare ingredients, products or treatments mentioned on Wisderm.com. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read on Wisderm.com.
Wisderm and its contributors do not assume liability for any actions undertaken after visiting Wisderm.com, and do not assume responsibility for any side effects, personal injury, damage or loss sustained by anyone who relies on the information from the active ingredients, products, or treatments mentioned on Wisderm.com.
Wisderm is still a work-in-progress. There are thousands of studies out there, so it will take some time for our database to have comprehensive coverage of all active ingredients, clinically tested products and skincare treatments. We will get there!
We also focus exclusively on products that have been tested in clinical trials and where the results have been published in peer-reviewed journals. This excludes the vast majority of cosmetic and skincare products sold online or over-the-counter, which have no direct evidence of their efficacy.
If there's an ingredient / product / paper you'd like us to include, please create a thread about it on r/Wisderm, we actively monitor the subreddit and will respond ASAP. Thanks in advance for the suggestion!
The effect sizes are based on the amount of improvement observed based on instrumental measurements, clinical grading or subject self-assessments.
Marked (🠩🠩🠩/🠫🠫🠫): Intervention is significantly better / worse compared to placebo / no intervention / another intervention, with a standardised mean difference greater than 0.8, or a percentage of superiority greater than 71.4%
Notable (🠩🠩/🠫🠫): Intervention is significantly better / worse compared to placebo / no intervention / another intervention, with a standardised mean difference between 0.5 and 0.8, or a percentage of superiority between 63.8% and 71.4%.
Slight (🠩/🠫): Intervention is significantly better / worse compared to placebo / no intervention / another intervention, with a standardised mean difference of 0.5 or less, or a percentage of superiority of less than 63.8%.
Potential (⇧/⇩): Significant change from baseline that is not compared to placebo / no intervention.
No Effect (–): No significant change from baseline or no significant difference compared to placebo / no intervention.
Mixed Effect (⇧⇩): Some studies report an improvement while other studies report no effect or a deterioration.
The levels of evidence are modelled after systems used to assess the strength of results from scientific research, which are applied to evidence-based practices.
Strong (★★★★★): One or more double-blind randomised controlled trials without conflicts of interest, where the combined number of participants is 200 or more, there is enough data to compute an effect size, and the results are generally consistent.
Good (★★★★): One or more double-blind randomised controlled trials without conflicts of interest, where the combined number of particpants is fewer than 200, there is enough data to compute an effect size, and the results are generally consistent.
Fair (★★★): One or more double-blind randomised controlled trials without conflicts of interest, where there is not enough data to compute an effect size, or the results are inconsistent. One or more double-blind randomised controlled trials with conflicts of interest, where the results are consistent. No double-blind randomised controlled trials but at least 2 weaker trials with generally consistent results.
Some (★★): 1 or more weaker trials, regardless of whether the results are consistent.
Basic (★): Laboratory or animal studies that don't involve humans. Case reports, case series, expert opinions and editorials.
The grades take both the level of evidence and the effect size into consideration to come up with an overall rating.
Grade S: Strong evidence of marked or notable improvement.
Grade A: Strong evidence of slight improvement, or good evidence of marked, notable or slight improvement.
Grade B: Fair evidence of marked, notable or slight improvement.
Grade C: Some evidence of any improvement, or strong, good or fair evidence of potential improvement.
Grade D: Basic evidence of any improvement or mixed effect.
Grade E: No effect.