Feeding the skin: A new trend in food and cosmetics convergence
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924224419305035
Background
The convergence of food and cosmetics in the beauty industry is a major trend in the recent years, gaining an enormous importance on consumer habits including the diet, the nutritional supplement intake and food-based cosmetics.
Scope and approach
An overview about the concept of nutricosmetics is here presented, and how food and skin convergence trends the cosmetic industry. Examples of recently developed products are given.
Key findings
Food ingredients are being included in cosmetics and other personal care products with the aim of bringing into cosmetic products certain benefits of food ingredients. Moreover, due to the recommendation of the circular economy implementation, an approach to economic growth that is in line with sustainable environmental and economic development, a large number of food industry wastes are being recovered as added-value products by more sustainable and innovative extraction processes to be incorporated into cosmetic products amongst others. Although the potential of bioactive compounds extracted from food is already known, the specific biological activity is now being studied and reported.
Conclusions
Natural active food-derived ingredients are marketed as having several benefits on the skin. Their incorporation in food supplements and cosmetics is a reality already marketed. The truth about the benefits of food ingredients in cosmetics is not always properly discussed. The trend of “beauty from within” by oral supplementation is now accompanying the other trend that is “from the kitchen table to the skin”, that refers to the possibility to create cosmetics with the ordinary ingredients one have in the kitchen.
Introduction
Nowadays, consumers are driving innovation in cosmetics through the use of safe ingredients. They have increasingly preferred cosmetics made of natural ingredients with active functions on their skin and would prefer to pay more for a cosmetic that promises more skin benefits (Draelos, 2019). Food-derived ingredients have been explored to obtain “healthier” cosmetics (Anunciato & da Rocha Filho, 2012).
The concept of “Cosmeceutical” was first described in 1962 by Raymond Reed (Reed, 1962) and spread in 1980s by Albert Kligman (Kligman, 2006) based on scientific research of tretinoin administration for ultraviolet radiation (UV)-damaged skin (Feetham, Jeong, McKesey, Wickless, & Jacobe, 2018). Cosmeceuticals are topical products with effects on both skin appearance and functioning. These products are more than a simple cosmetic, being a mixture of “cosmetic” and “pharmaceutical”. Scientifically, cosmeceuticals have similar properties to pharmaceuticals, and thus, have a lasting effect through a physiological and/or pharmacological action (Anunciato & da Rocha Filho, 2012; Feetham et al., 2018; Kligman, 2006; Reed, 1962).
Other concepts have appeared along time as “Nutraceuticals” and “Nutricosmetics” (Fig. 1). Nutraceuticals were defined by DeFelice et al. (DeFelice, 1995), as “any food or part of a food that provides medical or health benefits”. This concept started to gain more attention in the 80s with the discussion of the food components benefits and the role on human health of each active component (Anunciato & da Rocha Filho, 2012; DeFelice, 1995). These active agents were regarded as key elements in the skin protection from damage and antiageing effects (Pearson, 2018).
Nutricosmetics can be described “as the consumption of food or oral supplements to produce an appearance benefit and are also called ‘‘beauty pills,’’ ‘‘beauty from within,’’ and even ‘‘oral cosmetics’’ (Anunciato & da Rocha Filho, 2012; Pearson, 2018).
All these concepts have arisen due the perception that we are surrounded of food capable of having effects in human body including skin. For example, fruits and vegetables have many variable antioxidants (Lademann, Meinke, Sterry, & Darvin, 2011).
More recently, several research groups have started to process plant and food waste to obtain new sources of active agents, mostly antioxidants, antimicrobials and antiageing compounds to be incorporated in cosmetic products. This has led to the selective extraction of mainly phytochemicals from natural material, such as vegetables, creating the opportunity to substitute synthetic chemicals that are currently in use in cosmetic industry (Fig. 2) (Peixoto et al., 2018). This is a growing market that promises to improve our general health as well as ecological recycling issues (Taeymans, Clarys, & Barel, 2014, pp. 583–596). In fact, efficient and low-cost re-use of industrial by-products for high added-value products in the context of health and well-being represents a real societal challenge from the technological, economic and ecological point of view.
Section snippets
“Beauty from the inside”
The benefit of ingesting products for a healthy lifestyle is gaining a growing impact in the consciousness of individual possibility to promote beauty from within. “Feeling healthy” and “looking good” are concepts much more overlapped. Nutrient is any substance that is absorbed and either provides energy or enables growth, repairs or proper functioning of the body. Nutrients are divided in different categories like minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and water (Jew et al., 2015
Nutricosmetics - a way to add value to cosmetic formulations
The regular consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in biologically active ingredients is pointed to be one of the best strategies against skin aging (Lademann et al., 2011). Nutritional supplements can improve skin structure and function due their antioxidant protection, anti-inflammatory activity, photoprotection properties, collagen synthesis and skin cell turnover (Pearson, 2018). Nutricosmetics idea appears as a combination of nutrition, health and cosmetics using functional foods and
Challenges of the food and skin care convergence
“Green Beauty” is the new trend of a consumer that cares not only about his beauty and well-being, but also about his ecological footprint. Sustainability is the word for new cosmetic consumers and ingredient buyers (Fevola, Sun, & York, 2017). People increasingly desire green cosmetics with natural and organic ingredients, and without preservatives, dyes, silicones or fragrances. However, this specific composition will influence the storage time, and the list of allowed preservatives will be
Potential for food and cosmetics convergence
The combination of both topical and oral food-based products is the most recent trend, mixing cosmeceuticals and either nutraceuticals or nutricosmetics for feeding the skin from inside and from outside. There is an increasing market based on the investment of skin-friendly products composed by a “green” generation compounds obtained from natural sources including food ingredients and agro-food industrial residues as well. The idea of preparing at home safe and inexpensive cosmetics is gaining
Conclusions
Nowadays, beauty can no longer be dissociated from health and consumers consider nutrition an important pillar in skin beauty. These concepts are the principles for food and cosmetic convergence to become a new trend in the personal care and cosmetic field. On the one hand, cosmetic companies are developing food supplements, on the other hand food ingredients are being included in cosmetics and the potential of bioactive compounds extracted from food is gaining a new scientific interest. These
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