Introduction

A quick google search on Halloween face paint can be quite frightening. There are already plenty of articles exposing the high heavy-metal content of many commercial face paints.

Here’s a new take: what if we could formulate a face paint that is not only safe and free of heavy metals, but could actually benefit your skin?

There’s a class of products known as cosmeceuticals. As the name suggests, cosmeceuticals ride the line between cosmetics (for decoration) and pharmaceuticals (for skin health). For example, think about a face mask you might put on before bed. It is marketed to have bioactive compounds that provide a medical benefit to your skin. The mask might even be an interesting color, kind of like face paint.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the mask is appropriate for face paint. It’s either the wrong color or texture, or not intended to be left on for extended periods. But in the spirit of Halloween and healthy skin, let’s do a hypothetical experiment. Let’s design cosmeceutical face paint.

Heavy metals in commercial face paints

Commercial Halloween face paints are often oil-based, and may use mineral oil, beeswax, or paraffin wax as a base. Different color additives may be used depending on the color of the face paint. Colorants are classified according to their chemistry. A dye is a synthetic, oil-soluble colorant. A pigment, on the other hand, is a colorant that is insoluble in water as well as organic solvents. For face paints, we are dealing with pigments.

For example, some of the most popular pigments are iron oxides, since these can be used to produce many different colors. Iron oxides can be sourced synthetically or from derived from nature. Color choices range from yellow, orange, red, and black, depending on the oxidation state.

Titanium dioxide, as another example, is the most popular white pigment in the cosmetics industry. It is also used in sunscreen, since it can physically filter UV radiation, and as a food additive, to decontaminate and preserve food.

Under the FDA, Halloween make-up such as face paint is subject to the same regulations as any cosmetic make-up. The FDA has strict guidelines for manufacturers regarding the intended use of the product. For example, products intended for application to the lips or eye area are subject to different regulations than other externally-applied products.

Despite the regulations, reports investigating the levels of lead, cadmium, and nickel in cosmetics indicate that face paints are among the most problematic products, along with lipsticks, eyeshadows, foundations, and skin-lighteners. In short, the products that include pigments tend to be the most dangerous.

The future of face paint?

An up-and-coming area of research is exploring the use of microalgae species for the pigmentation of cosmetics. Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms, full of brightly colored compounds that can be used as pigments in make-up. Research indicates that these naturally-derived pigments would be safer and less irritating to the skin compared to the synthetic pigments used in today’s commercial cosmetics.

And here’s the best part: those bright colors in the microalgae are indicative of bioactive compounds responsible for anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Many of them have been studied for functions such as stimulating collagen, inhibiting hyperpigmentation, reducing wrinkles, and UV-protection.

The pigments present in microalgae can be classified as carotenoids, chlorophylls, and phycobiliproteins, and together offer a range of different colored pigments. Carotenoids are the yellow, orange, and red pigments you see in many plants as well as marine species. Chlorophylls, as you probably remember, give plants their green color. We can get our blue pigment from a type of phycobiliprotein called phycocyanin.

Researchers can optimize the production of these pigments by carefully controlling the growth environment of the microalgae. Pigments can be used in not only face paints, but also in lipsticks, eyeshadows, and other pigmented cosmetics.

As we know, just because something is naturally-derived doesn’t necessarily mean that it is safe or non-toxic. Often, microalgae can have defense mechanisms that cause them to produce toxins, so naturally this is something researchers would want to consider. As with synthetic pigments, there is a risk that microalgae pigments could also contain high quantities of heavy metals or other harmful components.

Current research suggests that out of the many thousands of different microalgae species, only a couple hundred of them are expected to be unsafe for cosmetic use. Care must also be taken during growing and extraction to avoid the introduction of any harmful chemicals. That way, we can get all the skin benefits of microalgae pigments, and none of the risk.

So there you have it. Cosmeceutical face paints might just be the next untapped market.