In 2020, the beauty and skincare sector had to reinvent itself to respond quickly to the new needs and requests of an unpredictable and attentive market. The most significant challenge was (and is) to find a point balance between the “natural” and the “cosmetic product’s chemistry”. Some certainties emerge regarding trends and related sectors in this fluid context, showing positive signs of recovery. The future keywords of the cosmetics sector are “sustainability” (18.9% in 2020 compared to 13.2% in 2018, based on the answers of the interviewed sample), “natural/organic” (10.9%), “care” (7.8%), “ethics” (7.5%), “e-commerce” (7.1%), “social beauty” (7.0%), “personalization” (6.7%), and “safety” (6.3%). A cosmetic can be considered “green” if its formulation contains active ingredients derived from plants, such as minerals and plants, and not analogous active ingredients chemically reproduced in the laboratory. It is better if it is produced in an eco-sustainable way through processing methods that respect nature and plants according to organic crops. It is advisable to cultivate these cosmetics at zero km or on land near the production laboratories or travel with sustainable means of transport to reduce the environmental impact. Not all green products are the same. It is necessary to distinguish between natural ingredients, natural origin, and organic ingredients. Natural ingredients are chemical substances that are unprocessed or processed by mechanical, manual, naturally derived solvent, or gravitational means, dissolution in water, heating to remove water, extracted from the air by any means. Naturally derived ingredients are substances from the vegetable, mineral, or animal kingdom, chemically processed, or combined with other ingredients, excluding petroleum and fossil fuel-derived ingredients, ingredients derived from a plant feedstock, and bio-manufactured using saponification, fermentation, condensation, or esterification to enhance performance or make the ingredient sustainable. According to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) guidelines, organic ingredients are substances obtained by mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming methods to the fullest extent possible. Well, chaos reigns over natural cosmetics in the USA and Europe, because currently there is still no official regulation that has a precise definition on how to apply the words “organic” and “natural” to cosmetic products. The United States Department of Agriculture regulates “organic”. The National Organic Program (NOP), a part of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, certified organic products. Therefore, only cosmetics that contain or are made up of agricultural ingredients and can meet the USDA/NOP organic production may be certified under the NOP regulations. Four categories can be applied to certified organic products, including certified organic cosmetics: 100 percent organic (they are produced with 100% ingredients certified organic); organic (they can contain up to a maximum of 5% of non-organic products, excluding water and salt); “made with” (they are produced with least 70% ingredients certified organic, excluding water and salt); and specific organic ingredients (they contain a combination of organic and non-organic substances). In Europe, this market is regulated by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) issued ISO 16128 (November 2016), a new set of guidelines for any product on the European market that claims to be natural/organic, the E.U. Regulations EC 1223/2009 and EU 655/2013, which requires that every declaration on a label must be supported by adequate and verifiable evidence.
In recent years, new trends have been created in the field of green cosmetics: nutricosmetics, a food supplement to use for hair, skin, and nails to obtain beauty from within. Nutricosmetic products, or so-called “beauty supplements”, result from the scientific work of three research areas: food, pharmaceuticals, and personal care. They are soft or hard gels, capsules, tablets, syrups, gummies, or sachets containing a concentrated source of hyaluronic acid, minerals, vitamins, or botanical extracts, able to improve personal care. There is no specific regulatory framework addressing nutricosmetics at the EU and USA levels. However, the rules on food supplements govern beauty supplements. In this work, the food matrix of cosmetic relevance, bioactive molecules usable in cosmetic formulations, eco-friendly technology to produce bioactive cosmetic ingredients, and the analytical techniques helpful in purifying and dosing the active ingredients in vegetable and animal matrices, are revised. We aim to shed light on the nutricosmetic market waiting for a specific regulation for green cosmetics to help consumers make informed choices.
The growth in consumers’ interest in natural products determined the use of extracts from aromatic, herbal, and medicinal plants as active ingredients in cosmeceuticals and nutricosmetics formulations. They contain biologically active molecules (e.g., phenolic acids, polyphenols, triterpenes, stilbenes, flavonoids, steroids, steroidal saponins, carotenoids, sterols, fatty acids, sugars, polysaccharides, peptides, etc.), whose profile and level depending on the pedoclimatic condition and agriculture practice. Bioactive extracts are also obtained by algae, mushrooms, by-products of plant origins, and plant cell culture technology. The latter is a natural and suitable technology used to make hair care, makeup, skincare, and supplement ingredients. The explant is the vegetable tissue used to start a cell culture. The cells on the surface of the explant grow in volume, divide, dedifferentiate, and form a mass called calluses. In vitro, the callus could be sustained for unlimited time using the correct growth medium. In a liquid medium, cells constitute a rapidly growing suspended culture of individual cells or small groups of cells. Plant cell culture consent to produce high-value ingredients (primary and secondary metabolites) under controlled conditions. They have the advantage of maturing into a whole plant via embryogenesis, reproducing by using bioreactors independently on management practices and soil and climate conditions, producing high level of phytochemicals since some biomass in a short period are yield, and supplying contamination-free biomass. The cosmetic extracts from plant cell cultures meet the safety requirements of the market since they are free of pathogens, pollutants, and agrochemical residues, which often contaminate plant extracts, and rarely contain toxic compound and potential allergens from plants synthesizing them to defend themselves against the attack of pathogens and pests.
Natural antiaging ingredients include barrier repair, moisturizing, anti-inflammatory, skin lightening, and sunblock agent.
The skin moisturizing agents can be emollients, occlusives, and humectants.
Emollients cover the skin with a protective film to hydrate and soothe it. They contribute to decreasing flaky skin and roughness. Foods used as emollients include butter and oils such as the butter of shea, cocoa, cupuacu, mango, kombo, and murumuru butter; and the oil of almond, avocado, argan, borage, olive, babassu, broccoli, rapeseed, chia seed, castor bean, coconut, primrose, palm, passion fruit, pomegranate, raspberry, safflower, and sunflower.
Occlusives form an epidermal barrier to stop trans-epidermal water loss and regulate keratinocyte proliferation. Foods used as occlusive moisturizing agents are oils and waxes such as olive, jojoba, and coconut oils; and the wax of candelilla and bees. The oils of coconut and castor have both functions as emollients and occlusives.
Humectants are water-loving moisturizing agents that draw moisture from the dermis to the stratum corneum and binding water vapor from the environment. Honey, hyaluronic acid, sorbitol, glycerine, and glycerol are examples of humectants’ moisturizing agents.
The skin barrier stops transepidermal water loss and defends against pathogens. Barrier repair agents are the essential fatty acids, phenolic compounds, tocopherols, phospholipids, cholesterol, and ceramide. The ratio of the essential fatty acids is a critical point to benefit barrier repair. Higher levels of linoleic acid to oleic acid have better skin-barrier potential. It enhances the permeability of the skin barrier, being an integral component of the lipid matrix of the stratum corneum. Oleic acid, disrupting the skin barrier, acts as permeability enhancers for the other bioactive molecules present in plant oils. The antioxidant compounds (tocopherols and phenolics) modulate skin barrier homeostasis, wound healing, and inflammation. Phospholipids act as chemical permeability enhancers. They show anti-inflammatory effects by controlling the covalently bound, ω-hydroxy ceramides and inhibiting thymic stromal lymphopoietin and chemokine. Cholesterol and ceramides are other important lipid classes in the stratum corneum. Cholesterol in the plasma membrane can be an essential factor for the magnitude of the oxygen gradient observed across the cell membrane. Twelve ceramide subclasses are identified in the stratum corneum. Ceramide influences firm and plump skin. Topical application of a ceramide cream decreases IL-31 and damages the skin barrier’s physical
