ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION From time immemorial, people have tried to maintain healthy skin or to treat skin problems with such topical applications as mud, urine, animal products, oils, plants, or plant extracts and resins, and others. All of these were virtually ineffective except mud applications, which did have the advantage of providing UV protec tion. Generally, cosmetics developed into applications of colored substances on the skin to disguise the problems beneath. Over time, simple creams came into use and with them a burgeoning industry that today makes a fortune selling creams, gels, and other topical products largely produced from inexpensive ingredients such as simple fats or oils and emulsifiers or gelling agents, with colors and added per fumes to disguise the natural smell. The industry was built on selling “hope in a jar” because the most that these products could do was to create a surface barrier or oil that would inhibit the natural loss of water through the epidermis and thereby alleviate dry skin. Mesmerizing advertisements to promote the latest magical ingre dient promising eternal youth and beautiful skin were the only effective ingredients in the whole package. There has never been a shortage of gullible buyers, and so the cosmetics industry eventually became an industry driven by seductive titles and fanciful packages containing ineffective serums or creams laden with inviting colors and perfumes.
