Dermatol Clin. 2000 Oct; 18(4): 699-709; x.

Cosmetics. A dermatologist looks to the future: promises and problems.

Kligman AM.

Department of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104, USA.

The skin-care industry has created myriad new products to meet the needs of an aging population. Novel "bioactive" ingredients are derived from the sea, the earth, and the plant kingdom. Popular ingredients include Chinese herbs, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, hormones, and a multitude of "naturals". For academic medicine, this avalanche of new products poses the task of establishing international safety standards for determining how much product efficacy is science-based and how much is marketing hype.