Abstract
The world of cosmetics is now aiming at biobased materials which are skin-compatible and can be used to generate more sustainable beauty masks with enhanced bioactivity. This work presents, in this line of interest, the combination of two innovative technologies, namely electrospinning and dry powder impregnation, to generate biobased skin soluble electrospun pullulan carriers dry impregnated with chitin nanofibrils-nanolignin-glycyrrethinic acid (CLA) complexes, as effective biobased and skin compatible beauty masks. The scalability of the pullulan electrospun carrier and bioactive complexes impregnation were optimized and the morphology evaluated. Subsequently, skin compatibility and mask effectiveness were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that cell viability was optimal for both impregnated and neat pullulan fibers. Additionally, the CLA impregnated pullulan fibers were able to upregulate the endogenous antimicrobial molecule HBD-2. Preliminary studies in vivo indicated that the beauty mask containing the CLA complexes significantly decreased area, length and depth of forehead and crow’s feet wrinkles, and significantly increased moisturizing levels in the skin. The developed beauty mask was also seen to increase skin firmness, while it did not show skin irritation after the test. The work demonstrates that the combination of these two technologies may open new alternatives to more sustainable bioactive cosmetic products for the skin.
Highlights
The demand for effective skin care products has grown exponentially over the past few decades, mainly due to an overall increase in the age population along with a serious increase in air pollution [1].The consumer has become more self-conscious of their own health, and of their environment, Cosmetics 2020, 7, 96; doi:10.3390/cosmetics7040096 www.mdpi.com/journal/cosmeticsCosmetics 2020, 7, 96 since concerns about pollution have been made evident across the population with the world’s current plastic waste crisis and the consequent circular economy strategies [2]
Based on previous results from the literature [23,24], an aqueous solution of 21 wt.% of pullulan was optimized for upscaling purposes and the physicochemical properties of the solution were was optimized for upscaling purposes and the physicochemical properties of the solution were measured
0, PBSK-1 suggesting the benefits of electrospun pullulan asafter a skin carrier own
Summary
Cosmetics 2020, 7, 96 since concerns about pollution have been made evident across the population with the world’s current plastic waste crisis and the consequent circular economy strategies [2]. For this reason, it is not uncommon to find consumers choosing what they are buying by looking carefully at the ingredients of the products. Generating functional biobased beauty masks has become one of the key aspects to investigate in the cosmetic industry, being the use of bio-based hydrophilic polymers to produce beauty masks a good alternative to conventional masks [1]. Pullulan has been declared safe with a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, as well as certified harmless for food usage by regulations in other countries so it can deem as acceptable for their applications in the cosmetic field [7,10]
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