Entrepreneur proves ex-boyfriend faked ‘natural’ cosmetics range

afr.com:

A businesswoman convinced a court to require her ex-partner to acknowledge he made false claims about a cosmetics line called Biologi, which had been promoted as the world’s first skin cream made from a single type of plant.

Ross Macdougald was ordered by the Federal Court to publish five corrective notices on the Biologi website and social media accounts admitting that he had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct.

“Biologi is the first skincare product in the world that contains natural, stable, active vitamin C!” he was quoted as saying in Professional Beauty in 2020.

Native Extracts founders Lisa Carroll and Ross Macdougald in an undated photo. 

The lawsuit was filed three years ago by his former girlfriend and business partner, Lisa Carroll, whose business, Native Extracts, sells wholesale cosmetic ingredients made from plants. The business is based in Alstonville, in northern NSW.

Ms Carroll said Mr Macdougald set up a rival business, Plant Extracts, after they broke up in 2015. She accused him, in court documents, of using her certifications to show his ingredients contained vitamin C from Kakadu plums.

Ms Carroll hired chemists at the University of Queensland to analyse Mr Macdougald’s products – which were marketed as fruit extracts – and found two were 70 to 80 per cent glycerol, a compound made from vegetable oils or fats.

Mr Macdougald also claimed his products contained “byangelicin”, a compound that allegedly improved collagen production in the skin and reduced the potential for early ageing. Byangelicin is not real, Justice Kylie Downes ruled, and Biologi’s products do not contain vitamin C.

Mr Macdougald didn’t respond to a request for comment. In a note sent to customers, Biologi said he had missed