The need for a pharmacological approach in skincare: perspectives in skin health status

Introduction

There is no doubt that skin is our largest organ in human body and the one that interfaces with the environment. In fact, skin is the first tissue that encounters the vital and toxic substances of the nature and environment. Although todays blast of advertisement and social media promote the skincare as an important daily routine, there is less information concerning the scientific basis behind the skincare as a tool for our skin health.

Skin or skin tissue plays an important role in protecting our body against pathogens therefore enhance our immunity. In fact, skin seems to reform and regulate our first line defence as described in the new article by Egawa and Kabashima.¹ According to the authors, the morphology of the skin harbours a range of immune cells, including Langerhans cells! It established that skin tissue has a central role concerning the initiate immune response. Immune system and skin health status are strict bind together, in a complex form to protect the host from external insults. Nguyen and Soulika have published a very interesting article about the dynamics of the skins immune system.² In this article, the authors approach this complex subject, considering not only the defensive components of the skin but also the homeostasis of immune cells in the skin tissue and their role in wound healing. 

Skin has an extra important function, to protect the body from excessive water loss. Indeed this is a point of discussion, as transepidermal water loss (TEWL) characterize skin barrier function. TEWL is the amount of water that passively evaporates through skin to our environment and the average human TEWL is about 300 – 400 ml per day. TEWL is affected by environmental and intrinsic factors. Therefore, the measurement of TEWL is essential to maintain a healthy skin.³ Moisturizers not only increase the water content of epidermis but also increase skin softness in order to soothe irritated skin and heal the damaged epidermal barrier. 

If someone searches at the largest database of medical information, the PubMed® electronic library which comprises more than 34 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books, with the key word: skincare he/she will come to a surprise; there are not more or less 1091 references. This is a strange thing due to many facts:

• skincare routine and skincare is a daily routine for millions of people and dozens of scientists who are involved in this sector,

• in the market there are hundreds of ingredients that are available and are used by people in daily basis and

• there are hundreds of laboratories which are not only assured the quality of these products, in fact they are working in new molecules and innovate techniques in skincare and aesthetic medicine.

Therefore a rush conclusion will be, what is our knowledge in skincare and how this industry involves through the time. In fact, someone can suggest that this big pharmaceutical and skincare companies are not having a scientific basis of their products and it is only an advertising and financial profit.  These are very easy assumptions but few are the skin care companies that do this kind of research. This research is a pharmacological approach to skin care routine and to better health, which is something, that gains more fans over the last years.

Current status in skincare and skin health care

In this journal, there are some of the finest articles about skin health care and the need for a better skin health. As it already mentioned the skin is a vital organ of our body, therefore skincare care should have a new perspective, which is skin health. Most of the skincare lines built the idea of beauty, luxury, pampering however, skin remains a challenging organ. We should not forget that skin tissue is changing due to age, time, gender, environment and co-diseases. 

Although the skincare science and the quality-functional testing of several ingredients are in ‘infantile period’, the needs of the people are increasing. This is because every skin is different and every person is different. Millions of people are suffering from acne, burns, skin scarring, dermatitis and eczema, pre-aging and hormonal disturbances. Many of the skincare lines are trying in this individualism of our uniqueness to bring on the surface of the customers but sometimes, less or more we see that there is a big failure. That remains a point of a great discussion whether is wise an investment in this personal aspect of skincare. 

The idea of skin health is more relevant than ever, as there is a great awareness around skincare overall. The ‘scientific basis’ of many skin care products is under the question of many customers although many platforms of skincare products use a semi-medical or semi-scientific approach. Most of the skincare lines and new founded are trying to answer questions such as why this ingredient, how it works in my skin, how it works in scientific way in my skin health, microbiome etc. 

There is no doubt at any point that a healthy skin is the beautiful skin. Skin health care is more than what our eyes see and definitely is not addressed as a topical issue. Products that improve in a holistic approach our skin health care are few in the market, which is in fact a natural revolution of the beauty industry. These products aim to feel comfortable in our skin and embrace our imperfections at every age. Skin health status is something relative new in the industry but so fundamental for every physician or scientist in aesthetic medicine. Therefore a clearly, healthy skin is a beautiful skin and that makes sense. 

In order to achieve a healthier skin, you should support your skin not by patching a problem but to fixing the cause of a skin condition. This principle derives from those ethical skincare products that means their brands have a holistic approach for a better skin health. The definition of skin health products is very difficult. These products should promote not only the skin health but also enhance – protect the skin from pollution, environmental factors etc. Another feature of the skin health products is the regulation of specific biological processes in our body such as gut-brain axis. 

Therefore, these products have some major features such as:

• Contain high concentrations of botanical, marine, and biological extracts.
• No artificial fragrances.
• Contain scientifically published and proofed high quality active ingredients.
• Suitable for highly sensitive and allergy – prone skin.

A healthy approach to the skin is about giving what it needs. Therefore, people should inform and keep up their knowledge about their skin health care. Under the circumstances the brands who specialised in skin health care, therefore to enhance, a beautiful skin should avoid use the so-called against-skin language: anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, erase marks etc. The brands are not labelled with tags like green, clean, organic, doctor, Asian, Korean etc. This is also a hot topic for discussion what is mean by the terms organic, clean, green etc. The main idea behind a great brand has to have a deep scientific and pharmacological approach, which is very difficult at the process. In order to achieve it takes many hours of research for specific ingredients in a systematic way in order to have the best in skin health product. The quest for the best products derives from the need of the brand to achieve an effective skincare that is not based on overnight results but a nourishing niche for better health results. 

Phytopharmacology for better skin health

Desmond Morris, a great zoologist, declared, “Flawless skin is the most universally desired human feature”.⁴ Most of the people truly want to achieve the perfect skin and constantly are in search for the best skincare product. This comes from the fundamental knowledge that great skin is not simply genetics but many daily factors such as nutrition, health, use of suitable skincare products etc. At the end, caring of your skin health is as personal as any other organ in your body.

In the quest for a better skin health, the phytopharmacology – phytomedicine is a relative new area of pharmacology that includes the natural product discovery and evaluation, pharmacognosy (the knowledge of using these natural products for human purposes) and pharmacognistic investigations. In addition, the corresponding scientific journals accept articles concerning phytotherapy (such as clinical trials), phytopharmacology and phytopharmaceuticals.⁵ 

In the case of plant cosmeceuticals that are gaining popularity due to their antioxidant potential, their use based on ethnobotanical and traditional resources. Surprisingly nowadays has become more widespread with increase demand in skin care industry. Plant-based skin health products have many advantages over synthetic ones. Some of the advantages of plant-based ingredients in skincare that are mentioned by Joshi and Pawar review⁶ are the following:

• Good quality ingredients, free from harmful synthetic chemicals and pollutants that may be toxic to the skin.
• Easily to available without harming properties.
• Most of them are hypo-allergic and tested in big populations or special populations such as infants, children, pregnant women, lactating mothers.
• They are most of them compatible with all skin types something not applied by most synthetic ingredients. 
• There is a wide selection of plant-based ingredients that can fit to specific skin health issues or better the skin health status. In this category are included more complex formulas like plant-based neurocosmetics, neutraceuticals, microbiome-modification cosmetics etc.
• Not tested in animals, while most of them are tested in humans. 

Therefore, innovation in the area of skin health care needs to have high quality ingredients to implement the best combination of the formula. To achieve a formula with natural products it is needed a depth study of each of the plant, botanical or marine based ingredients, a clear target of the effect of the product and embrace an ethical – scientific background of a nourishing skin health care profile. 

Read more

1. Skin Immunity: A new player in the dermis; Gyohei Egawa, Kenji Kabashima (2021) e 10:e68979
2. The Dynamics of the Skin’s Immune System; Nguyen AV, Soulika AM; Int J Mol Sci. 2019 Apr 12;20(8):1811. doi: 10.3390/ijms20081811. PMID: 31013709; PMCID: PMC6515324.
3. The barrier function of skin: how to keep a tight lid on water loss; Tsuruta, D., Green, K. J., Getsios, S., & Jones, J. C. (2002) 12(8), 355–357.
4. The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal; Morris D. London, England: Jonathan Cape; 1967. 
5. The Role of Phytonutrients in Skin Health. Nutrients.; Evans JA, Johnson EJ; 2010; 2(8):903-928.
6. Joshi LS, Pawar HA (2015) Herbal Cosmetics and Cosmeceuticals: An Overview. Nat Prod Chem Res 3: 170. doi:10.4172/2329-6836.1000170