role of nanotechnology in cosmetics

IJOPILS. MAR 2015; 3(4):9-19
Vol: 3(4) March 2015
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International Journal of Pharmacy and Integrated Life Sciences
“Where improvisation meets innovation”
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REVIEW ARTICLE ISSN: 2320 - 0782 V3-(I4) PG(9-19)
Role of Nanotechnology in Cosmetics
Aakriti Kapoor1
, Pratibha Nand*1
1. Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Pharmacy, New Delhi, India.
ABSTRACT
The cosmetic industry is steadily probing for discovery of new formulations with effective delivery
system having biological activity. Nanoscience is one of the widely used technologies and finds
its applications in the cosmetic industry. Nanotechnology thus is a transformative and new
technical revolution and is being used for alteration of physical properties of an enormous range
of products from moisturisers, sun blocks, anti-ageing lotions to liquid make up, hair styling and
colouring agents, soothing creams etc. However the use of various techniques such as the
liposome, niosome, nanocrystals, microemulsion, nanoemulsion, nanosome, nanotubes have their
own share of advantages and disadvantages. This article aims at describing some of the
nanotechnologies used in the cosmetic industry.
KEYWORDS : Cosmetics, liposome, niosomes, nanoemulsions, anti-ageing and sun blocks.
Article received on: 11/03/2015 Article accepted on: 28/03/2015
Corresponding Author: Dr. Pratibha Nand
Address : Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Pharmacy, New Delhi, India
Email : pratibha.msip@gmail.com

Nand et. Al. , Volume 3 – Issue 4
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INTRODUCTION
Nanotechnology is most often described as the manufacture and manipulation of purpose-made
structures which are at least smaller than 100nm. The US FDA defines cosmetics, as “articles
intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on, introduced into, or otherwise applied to
the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance;
and articles intended for use as a component of any such articles except that such term shall not
include soap1
[FD&C Act, sec. 201]. Cosmetics account to be a paramount constituent of one’s
routine life, ranging from the use of moisturisers to toothpastes to perfumes to beauty products.
The European commission approximated in the year 2006 that nanoparticles are a constituent of
5% cosmetic products.2
The cosmetics industry therefore uses nano sized formulations thus
causing deeper penetration of the agents in the skin, resulting in the protection of sensitive agents,
controlled release, reduction in the amount of active molecule and additives, longer shelf life and
hence greater product effectiveness. 1, 3
Nanotechnology, a small wonder being explored by scientist in the form of nanomaterials such as
niosomes, nanocrystals, nanoemulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN), and nano structured lipid
carriers (NLC), found to give better results than the traditionally used formulations.
Nanoparticulate drug delivery system, is gaining lot of attention across biomedical, chemical foods
and cosmetics industry, because of its ability to cross the biological barriers, and get accumulated
at target site and/or improve the solubility of drugs. It has been reported solid lipid nanoparticles,
fullerenes and nanostructure lipid carriers have proved to be better safety vehicles than liposomes
because they are capable of providing enhanced skin hydration, better bioavailability and
controlled occlusion with improved stability.
Consumers using sunscreens without zinc and titanium oxide are exposed to more UVA radiation,
with increased risks of skin damage, premature aging, wrinkling, and UV-induced immune system
damage. Literature revealed the use of nanoparticles of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in
sunscreens lotions as principal ingredients and was found to be beneficial for giving protection
against sun with decreased visibility of the white tinge which is generally observed in conventional
compositions.

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The present review explores the current state of knowledge on nanotechnology in cosmetics,
various potential risks involved to human beings and the measures taken to ensure the development
of safe and effective nano-based products in cosmetics.
1. Liposomes
Liposomes are spherical, self-closed vesicles containing phospholipid bilayer encapsulating the
core material.4
When one bilayer encapsulates the aqueous core it is called unilamellar vesicles
while in the case of many concentric bilayers are involved then multilamellar vesicles are formed.
5, 6
Liposomes are generally synthesized with self-hydrolysable lipids which allow time-controlled
release of drugs. In addition to the natural lipids, liposomes can also be made from synthetic lipids
which include non-ionic surfactant lipids and make them chemically more stable. Liposomes can
vary in size, from 15 nm up to several μm and liposomes vesicles in the range of nanometres are
called nanoliposomes.2
Recently, a new type of liposomes called transferosomes find their
application in cosmetics as they are more elastic than liposomes. 7
Transferosomes size varies in
the range of 200-300 nm and can penetrate the skin with improved efficiency than liposomes.
Liposomes are actually nano scale lipid based vehicles. Micelles and polymerosomes are other
lipid based vehicles. Liposome as drug delivery systems can offer several advantages over
conventional dosage forms. These lipid based vehicles are used for increasing the solubility of
hydrophobic substances and for limiting the drug toxicity. Liposome provides sustained release
and improved penetration into tissues, especially in the case of dermal application. However,
several problems have been observed with these traditional vehicles, such as nonspecific uptake,
rapid clearance, and instability, which limit the therapeutic potential of these vehicles. Recently
certain novel preparations of these compounds have been developed to overcome these problems.
Liposomes coated with PEG, known as stealth liposome, are known to increase bioavailability
significantly because of reduced, nonspecific uptake. Liposome constructed with novel lipid
polymers have resulted in increased membrane stability.8
2. Niosomes

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Niosomes are non-ionic surfactant based vesicles having a structure similar to liposomes, formed
by the self-assembly of non-ionic surfactants in aqueous media. Initially developed and patented
by L’Oréal in mid past 1970’s.9
Niosome entered the market of the cosmetics offering various
advantages. “Niosome” introduced in 1987 by Lancôme.Van Hal et al. 10
and they reported that
niosome encapsulated estradiol can be delivered through the stratum corneum which is supposed
to be a protective barrier. 11, 17
Due to the high chemical stability of the surfactant as compared to
the phospholipid and no requirement of special preparation and storage conditions is an advantage
of niosomes over the liposomes, which resulted in low manufacturing costs and reduced purity
problems. 12
Use of novel surfactant (bola surfactant) for making niosomes has been found
effective for percutaneous drug delivery application. During preparation, application of heat or
agitation ensures niosomes to attain a closed bilayer structure. 13
The inner aqueous core of the
niosome could be used for delivery of the various hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs such as
NSAIDS, anti-inflammatory, anti-infective agents and other classes of drug which offers the
biggest advantage of enhancing the transdermal drug delivery. 14, 15, 16
3. Nanoemulsions
Due to their unique properties such as their small droplet size, thermodynamic stability, efficient
drug delivery system, desirable sensorial and aesthetic properties, the use of less surfactant,
nanoemulsions systems continued to attract a great part of cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry.18,
19
.These systems have remarkably uniform and small droplet size which results in optically
transparent or a translucent system, moreover their low viscosity leads to good spreadability.
Problems associated with the conventional emulsion systems are like creaming, flocculation,
sedimentation and coalescence which are not observed with nanoemulsions, making them more
acceptable in the cosmetic industry. These systems constitute an effective transport system due to
their increased free energy and high surface area. 20
Nanoemulsions may be water in oil, oil in
water or a bi-continuous one along with a suitable combination of surfactants or co-surfactants,
which is approved for human consumption (GRAS).21
Nanoemulsions are a better choice for
transport of lipophilic substances as compared to liposome due to their lipophilic interior and
moreover their effective delivery of drug make them popular in the industry. 20

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4. Microemulsions
In order to overcome the shortcomings of the prevalent formulations such as thermodynamic
instability and limited shelf life, the microemulsions was introduced by Hoar and Schulman in
1943 as potential delivery system. These transparent, isotropic, monophasic systems have
distinctive properties like large interfacial area, ultralow interfacial tension, thermodynamic
stability, dynamic microstructure , long shelf life, low viscosity , ability to solubilise immiscible
liquids and with reasonably lower cost of production when compared to the conventional
formulations.18-22, 24
As these systems can consume high amount of lipophilic constituents in the inner oil phase, which
is essential component of formulation as it increases their usefulness. Presence of nonpolar, polar
and interfacial realm allows enveloping constituents of varying range of solubility.22, 23
Their small
droplet size, density and increased surface area makes the droplets clinch with the skin resulting
in increased permeation. 24
Microemulsions as skin care product contain tetraethylene glycol monododecyl ether, sodium
alkyl sulphate, lecithin, alkyl dimethyl amine oxide, propranolol, hexadecane, isopropyl myristate
as their constituents25
. Hair care products also contain amino functional poly organosiloxane and
acid or metal salt.
5. Nanocrystals
Nanocrystals are clusters of hundreds to tens of thousands of atoms and their size ranges between
10 to 400 nm. The properties of nanocrystals like band gap, charge conductivity, and melting point
are dependent on their size and surface area. Nanocrystals have generally been used in the
pharmaceutical industry to overcome problems such as poor solubility, low bioavailability and
problems with delivery of drugs.26
Nanocrystals are beneficial for the pharmaceutical industry due
to their enhanced dissolution velocity, saturation solubility and reproducibility of oral absorption,
improved dose bioavailability and increased patient compliance by reducing number of doses.27
The first cosmetic product that appeared in market Juvena in 2007 and La Prairie in 2008 which
consisted of two poorly soluble plant antioxidants rutin and hespiridine that previously could not
be used for dermal purpose, once formulated as nanocrystals they had became available dermally
as per the measured antioxidant effect .2
The first nanocrystals product Rapamune® (rapamycin,

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immunosuppressive) was placed on market in year 2000 by Wyeth.26
In 2001, the second product
Emend® was introduced by the company Merck (aprepitant capsule, antiemetic), which had a
much higher nano crystal loading when compared to Rapamune.28
Nanocrystals generally reduce
the dose to be administered and provide a sustained release effect with better patient compliance.2
For their commercial production, pearl milling and high pressure homogenisation can be used
which is also accepted by regulatory authorities. The first four marketed products containing
nanocrystals such as Rapamune®, Emend®, Tricor® and Megace ES® were prepared by Pearl
mill technology by Elannanosystems. 28, 29
6. Dendrimers
The term dendrimer has been derived from two Greek words “Dendron” meaning tree and “Meros”
meaning part.30- 32
The chemistry of dendrimers was introduced by Fritz Vogtle and co-workers in
1978.30
The dendrimers are three-dimensional, hyper-branched, globular, monodisperse synthetic
polymers having well defined shape, molecular weight and size.33
A dendrimer essentially
comprises of a central core with branches that are radically attached to the central core 33
and
terminal functional group attached to outer series of branches.34
A wide variety of dendrimers are
available depending upon the compatibility and other properties. Dendrimers can be prepared by
Divergent, Convergent, and Double exponential or mixed methods. 35
Dendrimers have an
important contribution in the cosmetic industry, brands such as L’Oreal and Unilever have patents
in using dendrimer for the production of mascara, nail polish and sprays, gels and lotions
respectively.36-37
Besides these dendrimers have wide variety of applications ranging from
therapeutic, diagnostic to pharmaceutical industry.
SAFETY CONCERNS
One of the most popular questions raised in the media and peer-reviewed articles is “how safe is
nanotechnology38
. It has been established that nano sized particles are present in sunscreens and
cosmetics and they have raised the issue of safety regarding the dermal penetration of these
particles, leading to ill health. Penetration and dermal exposure are important issues when handling
engineered nanomaterials. Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are being used as an effective Ultra-
violet blocking agent in sunscreen lotions.39
The point is when these engineered nanomaterials

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come in contact with human skin and penetrate through the layers of skin what impact they have
on skin. Tinkle et al reported that latex particles of size smaller than one micrometer penetrate
outer layers of skin during flexing. Some studies show that presence of healthy intact skin acts as
a good barrier against nano structured particles 40
. Ryman Rasmussen et al have reported that
quantum dots of different size, shape with coating can penetrate through outer layers of pig skin
and enter the epidermis and dermis in 24 hours, the smallest particles (4.6 nm in diameter) had
shown localisation in the epidermis and the dermis within period of 8 hours irrespective of the
coating material and larger non spherical particles showed a penetration rate dependent on the
coating.40
CONCLUSION
As nanotechnology moves toward widespread commercialization and it is a transformative
technology which is merging with information technology, biology and social science. It is
expected to reinvigorate discoveries and innovations in many areas of the economy. Nanomedicine
is dominated by nanoparticulate drug delivery systems because of their ability to cross biological
barriers.

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