With the public’s growing interest in skin whitening, lightening ingredients only used under dermatological supervision until recently, are more and more frequently incorporated into cosmetic formulas. The active agents that lighten skin tone are either natural or synthetic substances, and may act at various levels of melanogenesis. They are used to treat various skin pigmentation disorders or simply to obtain a lighter skin tone as whiter skin may be synonymous of wealth, health, youth, and/or beauty in different cultures. However, recent studies demonstrated the adverse effects of some of these ingredients, leading to their interdiction or restricted use under the European Directive and several other international regulations. After an overview of skin whitening practices and the associated risks, this article provides insight into the mechanisms involved in melanin synthesis and the biological assays available to attest the lightening activity of individual ingredients. The legislation dealing with the use of skin lighteners is then discussed. As traditional depigmenting agents such as hydroquinone and corticosteroids are of safety concern, the potential of natural extracts has been investigated more and more; finally, a synthesis of three years of research in our laboratory for such plant extracts will be given.

Lately, the cosmetic and personal care market has been more and more driven toward natural ingredients by the rising consumers' awareness about personal health and safety and their will for safer cosmetics free of harmful chemicals. Preservatives are no exception to the rule: evidence or suspicion of the toxicity of certain synthetic preservatives that have been around for decades pushed the cosmetic industry forward to seek for natural alternatives, as the selection of natural preservatives already available is quite limited. Sourcing active metabolites and developing new natural ingredients are long-term procedures that are thoroughly described in the present paper, via the example of the design of a natural preservative based on the Santolina chamaecyparissus extract, and of the assessments of its preservative effectiveness.

Background: Vetiver is a key ingredient for the perfume industry nowadays. However, with the constant and rapid changes of personal tastes, this appeal could vanish and this sector could decline quite quickly. New dissemination paths need to be found to tap this valuable resource. Methods: In this way, its potential use in cosmetics either as an active ingredient per se (with cosmeceutical significance or presenting antimicrobial activity) has hence been explored in vitro. Results: In this contribution, we demonstrated that vetiver essential oil displays no particularly significant and innovative cosmetic potential value in formulations apart from its scent already largely exploited. However, evaluated against twenty bacterial strains and two Candida species using the in vitro microbroth dilution method, vetiver oil demonstrated notably some outstanding activities against Gram-positive strains and against one Candida glabrata strain. Conclusions: Based on these findings, vetiver essential oil appears to be an appropriate aspirant for the development of an antimicrobial agent for medicinal purposes and for the development of a cosmetic ingredient used for its scent and displaying antimicrobial activity as an added value.

Molecular and isotopic studies of archaeological organic remains, based on identification of biomarker, allow their characterisation. Using a rigorous fractionation scheme of organic extracts and mass spectrometric techniques (GC–MS, LC–MS, GC-C-IRMS), this is likely to provide information on the nature of substances, their production technique, their alteration state and, more generally, on their history. The results of the analysis from two series of samples are reported in this paper: dammar resins (Thailand, 4th B.C.–2nd B.C., pure materials) and an organic deposit on Osiris statuettes (Pharaonic Egypt, mixture of animal fat, bitumen, vegetal resin, beeswax).