Cosmeceuticals: coming of age

Conflicts of interest The author has received travel expenses from Procter & Gamble, and the author’s husband is a paid advisor to Procter & Gamble. ORIGINAL ARTICLE, p647 Changes associated with cutaneous ageing are cumulative and result from both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The desire to slow down or even reverse these changes is not a modern phenomenon. However, scientific and technological advances continue to expand at a rapid pace, pushing the dermatologist’s remit further into the aesthetic arena. A cosmetic can be defined as an agent applied topically to improve appearance, without impacting significantly on the structure or function of the skin. In contrast, a drug is a substance used to treat or mitigate disease, with resultant structural and/or functional impact. The boundaries of these definitions became blurred in the 1980s with the emergence of topical retinoids on to the cosmetic scene; Kligman coined the term ‘cosmeceutical’, referring to an agent whose purpose was that of a cosmetic, to improve appearance, but had the pharmacological action of a drug.1 Further work pioneered by Voorhees’ group in Michigan demonstrated the ability of topical retinoids to repair photodamaged2 and intinsically aged3 skin. This work contributed greatly to our understanding of the pathomechanisms involved in cutaneous ageing.