Trends in the use of marine ingredients in anti-aging cosmetics

Abstract

The evolution in the skin care industry has been driven by the recent interest shown by consumers in novel bioactive compounds from natural sources, instead of synthetic ingredients, and fostered the efforts to develop biologically active ingredients from natural organisms, resulting in the emergence of new and improved skin care products. Although plant-derived extracts are usually among the main constituents of the cosmetic formulations containing natural ingredients, with the advance of the biotechnological field observed in the marine industry, an increase in the use of marine ingredients for this purpose has been noticed over the last years. In this study, the trends in the use of marine ingredients in a panel of anti-aging formulations commercialized in the Portuguese market was analysed, by comparing the composition of the products marketed in 2011 with products launched or reformulated in 2018. While in 2011, only 6% of the 190 anti-aging cosmetics was from marine origin, a noticeable growth was observed in 2018, where these ingredients were used in 33% of the new 103 studied anti-aging products. Algae were undoubtedly the most used marine ingredient in these anti-aging formulations, probably due to their biodiversity, easy cultivation, and growth modulation, with red algae being the most used in both of the analysed periods. On the other hand, the use of marine bacteria has suffered a decrease from 2011 to 2018. This study analyses the emerging use of marine ingredients in anti-aging products to provide researchers and the cosmetic industry a perspective of the trends in marine ingredients to develop new and improved formulations to fight the inevitable skin aging.