*4.6. General Cosmeceuticals Applications*

Another possible use is to obtain compounds with cosmeceutical bioactivity, that is, compounds to be used as ingredients for skin care products. Many of the invasive species have been demonstrated to include these compounds. However, metabolite amounts often vary according to geographical and seasonal conditions, so environmental variability has to be taken into consideration [87]. For that type of product, brown and red marine seaweeds are the most used species. Extracts rich in potential cosmeceutical ingredients, such as phlorotannins, polysaccharides, carotenoids, fatty acids, as well as bioactive proteins, vitamins, and minerals can be obtained from seaweed [52]. These compounds are incorporated into cosmetics to optimize their properties; their capacity to stabilize and preserve products and the bioactive activities of the compounds found (antioxidant, photo-protection, anti-wrinkling, anti-cellulite, moisturizing, and whitening) [88,89]. In vitro studies also demonstrated that these compounds are UV protective, or have an inhibitory effect on melanogenesis [51].
