Marine-Derived Natural Cosmetics for a Green Future

In today’s world, the demand for cosmetics and cosmeceuticals is drastically increasing day by day. With this highly growing market, a simultaneous increase of adverse consequences by the hazardous chemicals from cosmetics is also observed. To combat the adverse effects of artificial cosmetics, natural products are now used as active ingredients in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. Although components derived from terrestrial plants are becoming more and more popular, the marine environment is also a more diverse source of both biological and chemical components. Starting from micro and macroalgae, seaweed, plants in coastal areas, marine fishes, bacteria, and the sea mud and water, all of these have minerals and nutrients that are very much essential for human skin health. These ingredients have selective skin care properties along with health benefits like antioxidant, anti-aging, immune protection, UV protection, stress protection, moisturizing agent, coloring agents, tanning cosmetics, anti-inflammatory (promote hyaluronan synthesis), skin repair activity, and so on. This chapter focuses on studying the marine-based active components for making cosmetic products. The discussion in the whole chapter will be primarily based on the active ingredients within the sea and their beneficiary aspects in the cosmetic industry. Secondly, it will focus on the different marine resources of active natural components as alternatives for synthetic chemicals and emphasize the potential of these safe components to create a greener, cost-effective, and safer cosmetic industry.