Cosmetics are broadly defined as products to visibly improve or protect the skin, so when it comes to using the term ‘preventative skincare’, it should not be taken lightly.
Yet there are some types of cosmetics that can be considered preventative, or at least, able to combat damage effectively. Let’s take a closer look at what they are, their key ingredients, and how they can support a claim of preventative skincare.
1. Sunscreen formulas
Undoubtedly, the number one preventative skincare product has to be sunscreen. Using sunscreen regularly can help prevent all types of skin damage, from drying out and burning, through to premature ageing and skin cancer.
Sunscreens are treated differently to standard skincare products when it comes to regulations; in some regions of the world they are considered drugs (USA and Canada) or therapeutic (Australia), while in the EU they are considered cosmetics but additional directions and claims can be made with the intention to protect the consumer and provide preventative skincare.
When formulating sunscreens, there are 3 key things you need to remember to get started:
1. you will need to use appropriate UV filters to obtain broad spectrum protection. This means using both UVA and UVB filters – the UVA filters must provide at least one third of the stated SPF claim.
2. check regulatory limits of sunscreen filters specific to the country that you are formulating for; this means you will generally need to use a combination of UV filters to achieve the desired broad spectrum and UVA:UVB performance.
3. depending on how much oil soluble UV filters are used, you may need to formulate a water in oil emulsion to ensure suitable stability and spreading, which contributes to achieving the best SPF rating and performance.
Watch tips on how to formulate SPF50+ sunscreen formulas.
2. Botox like peptides
Another preventative type of cosmetic formula is one that can help reduce expression-induced muscular contractions that would normally contribute to wrinkles. One of the most effective class of cosmetic ingredients that can provide this functionality is peptides with a botox-like activity. Learn more about peptides, proteins and collagen in cosmetic formulas here.
Peptides with this activity tend to mimic the peptides which are normally produced by the body to prohibit muscular contractions. By providing these mimics, the cosmetic product can help reduce the number and depth of these expression lines, and thereby ‘prevent’ the formation of deep wrinkles.
Delivery is especially important with these botox-like peptides – they are extremely small but need to travel a comparably huge distance through the epidermis. Watch our video on cosmetic absorption by the skin to see how difficult this delivery can be; and then watch how to increase cosmetic penetration to the required delivery sites.
3. Whitening and brightening actives
There are a lot of complexion brightening actives available, ranging from vitamin B3 and C through to a multitude of plant extracts and even certain types of peptides. Speak with your suppliers to see what options they can provide.
While sunscreen can help prevent the entire melanin production reaction from happening, brightening actives can be considered a type of ‘preventative’ skincare ingredients because they use one or more pathways to inhibit, or prevent, the activity of melanocytes such as:
1. neutralizing reactive oxidants
2. inhibit tyrosinase activity
3. inhibit melanocyte dendricity and/or
4. block the transfer of melanosomes to keratinocytes
4. Antioxidants
Antioxidants can be considered preventative skincare because they quench free radicals before they are able to cause damage to our skin. Some of the key antioxidants you should be incorporating into your formulas for this preventative effect include:
• Mixed tocopherols – undoubtedly one of the most widely used and known antioxidants found in a vast range of cosmetic formulas to not only protect the formula from oxidative changes, but also the skin. Just remember, when formulating, the acetate form will protect the skin but not the formula, so if you need to improve the stability of your cosmetic formula with anti-oxidant protection, always use the pure tocopherol form.
• Vitamin C – another widely known antioxidant, it can also brighten the skin. Vitamin C can be a lot trickier to formulate with, given its many incompatibilities (depending on the specific form used) and its relatively low shelf life. Make sure you formulate with vitamin C carefully to get the desired results, watch this video for tips.
• Ferulic acid is another antioxidant with brightening skin benefits and is especially useful in after-sun products.
• Resveratrol, ectoin and a host of other antioxidant herbal extracts – speak with your suppliers for materials with potent antioxidant activity for the skin.
Just remember: antioxidants that help stop free-radical damage in the skin don’t necessarily have any antioxidant activity to help lengthen the shelf life of your cosmetic formula. Only a few materials such as mixed tocopherols, alpha-tocopherol and resin-like rosemary extract can provide formula specific benefits.
5. Humectants and barrier protection
Humectants are the unsung hero of a cosmetic formulation; they provide suppleness and hydration to the skin without greasiness and can give an instant plumping and smoothing effect on application.
Barrier protection from ordinary lipids or specific film formers can also help hold water in the skin by significantly lowering and in some cases, almost preventing trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL). The combined effect of humectants with barrier protection helps keep moisture in the skin, an essential element to keep it healthy and looking great.
Preventative skincare is not a marketing term that can be bandied about; but when promoting sunscreens, botox like activity, whitening, antioxidant and TEWL protection, it is definitely a claim you can imply with caution.
These types of cosmetic products, and the ingredients used in their formulation, are the best defence against undesirable cosmetic effects, and even skin damage, for what is the closest thing we can consider as preventative skincare.
Remember to speak with your suppliers and visit your nearest in-cosmetics exhibition to formulate ‘preventative skincare’ with confidence.
Happy formulating!
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