A Beautypedia subscriber contacted me recently to inform me that the ingredient list we had on the site for N.V. Perricone’s Neuropeptide Eye Area Contour was incorrect. Such communication is always appreciated, and sure enough, she was correct and we updated the information on www.beautypedia.com Don’t Go The Cosmetics Counter Without Me—one of the best features of Beautypedia: real time updates!). whole year! Can you imagine? Perricone has never been a doctor prone to providing accurate, substantiated information about his products, but knowingly keeping an incorrect ingredient list on his site for so long, I mean really, isn’t that inexcusable?

As you might have suspected, the plot thickens: although the company didn’t say this directly, it appears the reason the incorrect ingredient list stayed on the site was that it was much more impressive than the real one, at least if you bought (literally and figuratively) into Perricone’s claims about neuropeptides as today’s hottest youth elixir. The outdated ingredient statement listed “neuropeptides” as the main ingredient, a seemingly impressive point and one that helps justify this product’s hefty price tag ($195 for 0.5 ounce). But the new ingredient list has his overly hyped peptides in a very different place: almost dead last. So it turns out for nearly $200 you’re getting less peptides than in $20 bottle of Olay Regenerist Daily Regenerating Serum.

Another revelation: the original ingredient list for this product listed the peptides as “CLB-253 Neuropeptide” and “CLS-72 Neuropeptide”, while the current (correct) ingredient list more accurately identifies these as form of the commonly used pentapeptides, which hardly justifies the price or gives credence to the age-reducing claims. If I had purchased this product I’d be extremely disappointed in the bait-and-switch tactics employed, not to mention the meager amount of bells and whistles this eye-area anti-wrinkle moisturizer actually has. Chutzpah, thy name is Perricone!