Portal infoCosméticos: a digital tool to empower consumers and health professionals

Abstract

Nowadays, the information regarding cosmetic products available to the community is vast, although not always trustworthy. The Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (FFUP) launched the Portal infoCosméticos aiming to provide professionals involved in cosmetic advice with reliable information, supported by up-to-date scientific evidence, while empowering Portuguese-speaking consumers to make better informed choices. Pre and post-graduates of the master's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences are responsible for developing contents, which are submitted to a linguistic review by students of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Firstly, a relevant question is identified, following a comprehensive search on the topic and the creation of an infographic. The scientific validation is carried out by national and international scholars, and the national regulatory authority, INFARMED. Since it was released in 2017, the website has hit more than 170,000 visualizations, covering topics related to regulatory affairs, safety and efficacy, cosmetic ingredients and cosmetic products. The most accessed topics by digital users were disclosed by monitoring the visualizations of each question with Google Analytics, considering the publication date. According to the records, consumers seem to be more concerned about the safety of cosmetics and interested to know more about their composition.