Almost a decade after the stipulated deadline in the 7th amendment to the EU Cosmetics Directive, which bans the marketing of animal-tested cosmetics in the EU from 2013, animal experimentation for cosmetic-related purposes remains a topic of animated debate. Cosmetic industry continues to be scrutinised for the practice, despite its leading role in funding and adopting innovation in this field. This paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art review of the field on alternative testing methods, also known as New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), with the focus on assessing the safety of cosmetic ingredients and products. It starts with innovation drivers and global regulatory responses, followed by an extensive, endpoint-specific overview of accepted/prospective NAMs. The overview covers main developments in acute toxicity, skin corrosion/irritation, serious eye damage/irritation, skin sensitisation, repeated dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity/endocrine disruption, mutagenicity/genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, photo-induced toxicity, and toxicokinetics. Specific attention was paid to the emerging in silico methodology. This paper also provides a brief overview of the studies on public perception of animal testing in cosmetics. It concludes with a view that educating consumers and inviting them to take part in advocacy could be an effective tool to achieve policy changes, regulatory acceptance, and investment in innovation.

This study focuses on the development of biocompatible oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions based on polyglycerol esters, as promising carriers for natural actives: red raspberry seed oil—RO and hydro-glycolic fruit extracts from red raspberry—RE and French oak—FE. Nanoemulsions were obtained via phase inversion composition (PIC) method at room temperature by dilution of microemulsion phase, confirmed by visual appearance, percentage of transmittance, microscopic, rheological and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) investigations. The results have shown that the basic RO-loaded formulation could be further enriched with hydro-glycolic fruit extracts from red raspberry or French oak, while keeping a semi-transparent appearance due to the fine droplet size (Z-ave: 50 to 70 nm, PDI value ≤ 0.1). The highest antioxidant activity (~92% inhibition of the DPPH radical) was achieved in the formulation containing both lipophilic (RO) and hydrophilic antioxidants (FE), due to their synergistic effect. The nanoemulsion carrier significantly increased the selective cytotoxic effect of RO towards malignant melanoma (Fem-X) cells, compared to normal human keratinocytes (HaCaT). In vivo study on human volunteers showed satisfactory safety profiles and significant improvement in skin hydration during 2 h after application for all nanoemulsions. Therefore, polyglycerol ester-based nanoemulsions can be promoted as effective carriers for red raspberry seed oil and/or hydro-glycolic fruit extracts in topical formulations intended for skin protection and hydration.

3D printing (3DP) is a manufacturing technology that produces 3D objects from a design file using layer-by-layer deposition of material. It has already found applications in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, while its use in the field of topical delivery has been extensively studied in the last two decades. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the 3DP-based developments in topical delivery, with special emphasis on its current and potential use in the cosmetic field. This review covers the principles and main types of 3DP technology, production, and characteristics of two key 3DP skin delivery platforms (patches and microneedles—MNs), as well as topical active materials used, focusing on those for cosmetic application. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed articles in relevant databases was performed (including PubMed, Wiley Online Library, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Kosmet, ScienceDirect and Scopus) from 2004 to date. The study concludes that 3D printed MNs would gain prevalence over patches for both pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications and that dissolving MNs have the highest potential among them. The use of 3DP technology appears to be a promising approach to the development of efficient personalised cosmetic delivery platforms.

The aim of this study was to assess and improve the oxidative stability of red raspberry seed oil–RO, a potential topical ingredient derived from food industry by-products, on its own and when incorporated in low energy nanoemulsion (NE). The RO’s oxidative stability was assessed at 5, 25, and 40 °C during one month of storage and expressed in: peroxide value, p-anisidine, and thiobarbituric reactive substances—TBARS value, while for NEs, lipid hydroperoxides and TBARS values were monitored. Both synthetic (butylated hydroxytoluene—BHT and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid—EDTA), and natural (oregano essential oil—ORE and oak fruit extract—OAK) antioxidants were used. Pure RO and RO with BHT or ORE were stable at 5 °C and 25 °C, but at 40 °C BHT showed only moderate protection, while ORE was prooxidant. NEs prepared with new biodegradable polyglycerol esters-based surfactants, with droplet sizes of < 50 nm and narrow size distribution, showed improved physicochemical stability at room temperature, and especially at 40 °C, compared to NEs with polysorbate 80, which required the addition of antioxidants to preserve their stability. Natural antioxidants ORE and OAK were compatible with all NEs; therefore, their use is proposed as an effective alternative to synthetic antioxidants.

Energy input in emulsion manufacturing comprises thermal and mechanical energy, with thermal energy being predominant. In terms of raw material selection, there is a widely accepted belief that natural formulations are more “eco-friendly” than their standard (not natural) counterparts. The aim of this study was to compare the energy consumption and subsequent carbon footprint resulting from the production of two main emulsion types, each represented by its standard and natural variant and made by using different manufacturing processes (hot, hot-cold and cold). This resulted in six samples of oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion types, respectively. Scale-down calculations were used to establish the required homogenisation time and speed of the laboratory homogeniser, necessary to achieve the same shear rates as the chosen industrial vessel. The resulting emulsions were characterised using rheological and textural analysis. The six emulsions within each emulsion type have exhibited sufficiently similar characteristics for the purpose of carbon footprint comparisons. Calculations were conducted to quantify the energy input of hot and hot-cold procedures, followed by cradle-to-gate life cycle analysis (LCA). Energy calculations demonstrated that the hot-cold manufacturing process saved approximately 82% (for O/W) and 86% (for W/O) of thermal energy in comparison to the hot process. LCA has shown that the effects of using natural instead of standard ingredients were negative, i.e., it led to a higher carbon footprint. However, it was dwarfed by the effect of the energy used, specifically thermal energy during manufacturing. This strongly indicates that the most efficient way for companies to reduce their carbon footprint is to use the hot-cold emulsification process.