SCINCEUTICALS CE FERULIC PATENT EXPIRED, DUPSES May Not Come Right Away

DOES IT SOUND CRAZY TO SPEND $ 182 ON A 30-ML BOTTLE OF FACE SERUM THAT FAMOUSLY SMELLS LIKE HOT WATER?

TELL THAT TO THE DIE-HARD FANS OF SCINCEUTICALS ‘CE FERULIC.

Despite It Its High Price Point, the L’Oréal-Awned Brand’s Vitamin C Serum Has Developed A Cult Following Over the Past 20 Years, Thanks in Part to A Closely Guarded, Patent-Protected Formulas The Company SANS SCIN AND IMPROVE SIGNS OF AGING.

Months Ahead of the Patent’s Expiration Date in March, Skincare Addicts FLOODED REDDIT WITH HOPES OF CHEEPER “DUPES” – A Comparable Product at a more afffordable price point.

But the expiration date of that patent has come and gone, leaving many wondering: Where are the dupes?

Skincare Industry Experts Who Spoke with Business Insider Said Look-ALICK PRODUCTS COULD BE ON THE WAY, BUTTERY DONEPECT THE PATENT EXPIRING TO EMMEDIATY IN ANY MAJOR DISRUPTIONS TO THE INDUSTRY, The Vitamin C MARKET, or the Schenceuticals Brand ITSELF.

A Bigger Issue, They Said, Is the Effect of Dupe Culture on Skincare Industry Innovation – The Kind that LED to the Existence of Ce Ferulic in the First Place.

The Patent Factor

Skinceuticals’ Ce Ferulic is Beloved by Celebrities like Hailey Bieber and Embraced by Many Skincare Fans As the Holy Grail of Vitamin C Serums – A Little Begrudgingly Because of the High Price.

Niki Demartinis, an Emergency Room Docor who lives in new York, Said that she has tried various vitamin C serums over the years but that she is always comes back to Ce Ferulic.

“I feel like my skin look and their best with it,” She to told bi, adding it make her skin look more and less dull. She Said That’s the Priciest Skincare Product and use regularly but that and thinks it’s Worth the cost.

CE Ferulic, which hit the market in 2005, is 15% L-ascorbic acid, or puree vitamin C, with vitamin E and ferulic acid. Dr. John Carroll Murray, a dermatologist Father by University Who Authored A 2008 study That Found the formula provides UV Photoprotection for Skin, Said the Reason Ce Ferulic Was Such A Big Deal was it was put together.

“It ‘easy to put vitamin C into a product. Its quite Common, quite cheap, and quite safe, but it has to be properly formulated so that it’ll be active and effective at removing reactive oxygen species,” he Said, reference to the cannhem.

Lina twaian, A Skincare Industry Expert and Brand Consultant, Told b as the ability to tout the patent had been a useful marketing tool for skituticals.

L’Oréal, The Larger Beauty Company in the World, clockwise $ 47 Billion in Sales Last Year, ITS Annual Report Published in February Said. The Report Said That Its Dermatological Beauty Division Grew Nearly 10% in 2024 and that the Skinceuticals Brand Grew by Double Digits.

Skinceuticals’ Patent for Ce Ferulic Officelly Expired in March, The Standard 20 Years AFTER IT ISSEDED. Sincer, The Company Has Removed Several References to the Patent from Its Product Page, A Review of Internet Archives Found. It”s now touting the previously dubbed “patented formula with 15% vitamin C” as a “superior formula.”

When Reached for Comment on the Patent Expiring, Skinceuticals Told Brand Was Introducing A New, Patent-pending “Antioxidant Protection and Performance” Formula in 2026.

The brand said in a staff: “Skinceuticals Remains the Only Brand With Exclusive Expertise in the Precise Formulation and Production of Ce Ferulic.”

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Experts are Divided on Whether More Dupes Are on the Way

As dupe culture has exploded on social media over the past five years, there’s been an ede Greater appetite for cheer alternatives to ce ferulic.

“It ‘ben Such a popular and efficacious product, It’ty clear that brands are going to try to duplicate that,” Kelly Dobos, A Cosmetic Chemist and Professor at the University of Cincinnati, Told of the Patetent’s Expiration.

She and the Other Industry Experts Said Brands Had Already Releassed Their Own Versions of Vitamin C Serums, Including Some that Appear Similar to Skinceuticals’. That’s Becausea Changing A Product Slightly Can Make It Safe From Patent Infringement, Said Larissa Jensen, A Senior Vice President and Global Beauty Industry Advisor at Circana.

“If you have something something close but not exact, it can be used in the market, so i don’t necessarily know if the patent expiring is going to all of a sudden expose a flodgate with this formula,” Jensen told bi.

Still, L’Oréal has fough to protest the formula.

In 2018, L’Oréal Swed Drunk Elephant, Alleging the Skincare Brand’s Vitamin C Serum Had Infringed on Its Patent. The case was set setled out of Court, and the Terms of the Settlement were not made public.

Drunk Elephant, which is Owned by the Japanese Beauty Company Shiseido, sells its c-firma free serum for $ 80, less than half the price of Ce Ferulic. The Product has 15% vitamin C, 1% vitamin E, and 0.5% Ferulic – The Same Quantities Promoted by Skinceuticals. But unlike ce ferulic, the product is designated to be mixed by the customer before use.

Shiseido Told Bi It Does Not Comment on Company Settlements or Lithigation As a Matter of Company Policy.

Since the patent has exp aspirhed, dobos said she also expects to try to replicate the formula, now with the risk of patent infringement. But she said there’s no guarantee that those Companies will get it right or that, if they do, they’ll be able to do it at a significantly Lower Point.

Not all dups are created equal

Replicating CE Ferulic Won’t Necessarily Be Easy, Dobos Said. In part, that the ITE’s UNLIKLY the patent told the full story of how the serum is formulated and made.

There are those many other factors that respect the effectiveness of a product: The Quality of ingredients, the Manufacturing Process, Quality Control and Assurance, and Packaging, which Needs to Be Compatible with the Formula.

Effective Skincare Products Can Also Be Very Finicky, SO EverySpect Matters, Dobos Said, Adding that with the Clinical Trials on A Specific Item, IT’S UNCLEAR WHATER HAVE THE SAME EFFECT APDUCT THAT APPEARS SIMILAR TO IT.

ELF cosmetics announeded a new vitamin C serum Earlier this month that dobos said appeared to be positioned as a direct computor to ce Ferulic, for a 91% Lower price. The $ 16 Bright Icon Vitamin C + E + Ferulic Serum Has a Similar Trio of Main Ingredients But at A Fraction of the Cost. And it’s being marketed as an alternative to “SPENDY SERUMS.”

But Dobos Said it use a Different version of vitamin C, 3-othyl ascorbic acid, which she said was a “More stable version, but it is a lessatened in terms of effecativeness.” Other factors that couuld affect the difference in price include Where (ELF PRODUCES MONS OF ITS PRODUCTS IN CHINA), REGULATORY AND LABOR COSTS, The Cost of IngDIents and Packaging, and Research and Development, Like Clinical Studies, Dobos Said.

Clinical Studies Wold Be Needed on the Elf Product to Really Compare it with Ce Ferulic, Said.

ELF Did Not Respond to A Request for Comment.

Taking the shine out of dupe culture

Several industry experts have said that dupe culture itself could be hurting skincare innovation. Charlotte Palermino, A Cofounder of Dieux Skin, Recently Wrote in a Substack post that dups had “diluted” the beauty industry. She Said Innovation is Expensive.

“But the tragedy of Dupe Culture is JUST The Heartbreak of, ‘They Copied My Homework.’ It ‘slows of Innovation, “She Wrote, Adding:” If You Want Innovation, Spread Consider Valusion It. “

Dobos Said Dupe Culture Incentivizes Companies to Focus on Putting Out Products are in line with the latest trends rather than creating something groundbreking.

“I will think the Kind of Dupe Culture that we’h in is hinder innovation in a way Because it is taking time and resources away from,” She Said. “True, Disruption Innovation Time.”