Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to address the multidisciplinary special challenges of natural ingredients in personal care products:

Composition: Most natural substances are variable mixtures composed of a multitude of heterogeneous chemical components. Precise data on types and percentages of relevant hazardous components needed for hazard and risk assessments are scarce.
Toxicity: Many natural compounds are physiologically active and cause beneficial or adverse effects in humans. Hazardous effects on skin, eyes and the aquatic environment are frequent, and some compounds are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction.
Exposure and monitoring: Wide dispersive use of personal care products contributes to direct and indirect human and environmental exposure, in addition to discharges of natural substances from household products, agriculture, fracking or further applications.
Reactivity: Many natural components are prone to oxidation and other chemical reactions, yielding chemical substances with unexpected properties.
Microbial contamination: This is pivotal for natural substances and leads to the issue of under-preserved or over-preserved products.
Ecosystem integrity and life cycle assessment: The collection of rare wild species contradicts sustainability.
Regulatory aspects: Several shortcomings of natural substances need more attention, such as: Substance nomenclature is frequently inconsistent. Substance identities are often unclear. Fragrance allergens need not be disclosed on the ingredient lists as components of natural substances.
Market surveillance: It is urgent, that national authorities monitor natural compounds and microbial contaminations restricted in personal care products, even if the tests are laborious and costly.
Consumers and professionals: There is little awareness about potential hazardous natural ingredients and misleading general attractive messages.

This Special Issue has the objective to specify such shortcomings. It attempts to collect constructive solutions to these and related challenges, where protection of human health and environment are of the highest priority. This Special Issue should help to adjust the blind confidence in natural substances by many users and objectify the appreciation of natural substances in personal care products.

Prof. Dr. Ursula Klaschka
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cosmetics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Cosmeceuticals
Emerging pollutants
Endangered species
‘Green’ personal care products
Microbial contamination
Multicomponent substances
Natural substances
Phytotoxins
Product aging
UVCB substances (‘unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products or biological materials’)

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 910 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Personal Care Products Are Only One of Many Exposure Routes of Natural Toxic Substances to Humans and the Environment

by Thomas D. Bucheli, Bjarne W. Strobel and Hans Chr. Bruun Hansen

Cosmetics 2018, 5(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/cosmetics5010010 - 09 Jan 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 13411

Abstract

The special issue “A Critical View on Natural Substances in Personal Care Products” is dedicated to addressing the multidisciplinary special challenges of natural ingredients in personal care products (PCP) and addresses also environmental exposure. In this perspective article, we argue that environmental exposure is probably not so much dominated by PCP use, but in many cases by direct emission from natural or anthropogenically managed vegetation, including agriculture. In support of this hypothesis, we provide examples of environmental fate and behaviour studies for compound classes that are either listed in the International Nomenclature of Cosmetics Ingredients (INCI) or have been discussed in a wider context of PCP applications and have been classified as potentially harmful to humans and the environment. Specifically, these include estrogenic isoflavones, the carcinogenic ptaquiloside and pyrrolizidine alkaloids, saponins, terpenes and terpenoids, such as artemisinin, and mycotoxins. Research gaps and challenges in the domains of human and environmental exposure assessment of natural products common to our currently rather separated research communities are highlighted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Critical View on Natural Substances in Personal Care Products)

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Review

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21 pages, 505 KiB

Open AccessReview

Essential Oils and Their Single Compounds in Cosmetics—A Critical Review

by Asja Sarkic and Iris Stappen

Cosmetics 2018, 5(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/cosmetics5010011 - 12 Jan 2018

Cited by 231 | Viewed by 89787

Abstract

Essential oils are widely incorporated in cosmetic products, perfumes and related household products due to the variety of their properties but mainly due to their pleasant odour. The composition of these volatile natural complex mixtures may vary depending on the quality of plant material from which they were obtained and the extraction method by which they were derived. These factors are also important in ensuring the safe use of essential oils in personal care products. As they contain compounds with varied chemical structure and effects, skin sensitivity and irritations as well as other symptoms may arise after their application. Although essential oils are considered as safe and nontoxic when used at low concentrations, available scientific literature indicates that essential oils and their compounds may possess a strong allergy potential. This review focuses on side effects and allergy contact dermatitis caused by selected essential oils and their single compounds in cosmetic products, summarizing data from the most recent scientific literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Critical View on Natural Substances in Personal Care Products)

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