Cosmeceuticals and dermocosmetics are innovative proposals for people with specific skin problems. Directed and targeted at a specific skin problem, they promise to have both a caring and therapeutic effect. Regulations, however, place these groups in the category of cosmetics and not drugs. This does not change the fact that they contain active substances bordering on obivdual action.
People with skin problems have an increasingly wide range of options for combating skin imperfections. When looking for a solution to their problems, it is increasingly common to come across proposals to use cosmeceuticals or dermocosmetics as a more effective category than "ordinary" cosmetics, suggesting that they are closer to drugs than to cosmetics.
Cosmeceuticals , as well as dermocosmetics, have been breaking through into the cosmetics market in recent years, with promises to solve even the most difficult skin problems. What are cosmeceuticals? The term, proposed by Raymond Reed, a member and founder of the Society of Cosmetic Chemistry in the USA, in 1961, and popularised by Albert M. Kigman in the 1970s, defines a 'cosmeceutical' as a cosmetic that has properties that affect the physiological processes of the skin and assist in the healing process. They are agents with a specific purpose, targeted at a given aesthetic problem. Following the originators of the term, it can be said that it is an effective, safe, stable and innovative form of skin protection and treatment support for skin problems. However, there are also sceptics of this approach, who claim that "cosmeceutical" is just an unofficial name, which is mainly used for advertising and marketing cosmetic products that are supposed to have a positive and healing effect on the skin.
The term 'dermocosmetic', used in publications by Selles in the 1990s, is understood to mean a special-purpose cosmetic for a specific skin ailment, acting on a specific skin type, co-developed by dermatologists and available only in pharmacies.
Cosmeceuticals or dermocosmetics?,photo: panthermedia
A clarification of the definitions of the above-mentioned product groups would suggest considering them in the category of a medicine rather than a cosmetic. Legally, the case is somewhat different. Referring to the Cosmetics Act and the Pharmaceutical Law, one can conclude that one product cannot be both a cosmetic and a drug. Therefore, both groups of products are considered cosmetics in the eyes of the law and are regulated as such.
However, this does not change the fact that both cosmeceuticals and dermocosmetics contain substances that influence the biochemical and physicochemical processes of the skin. They therefore contain active substances whose action can be placed on the borderline between cosmetic and drug. An example of this can be nicotinamide used in cosmeceuticals, whose effectiveness in the fight against acne is comparable to that of the topical antibiotic preparation clindamycin.
