Clays are used in various cosmetic formulations, such as sunscreens, toothpastes, deodorants, creams, hair cosmetics, makeups, nail polish, facial masks, and shampoos, among others, to improve the organoleptic and physicochemical characteristics, to increase the stability, or to facilitate elaboration. Together with their technological functionalities, clays are cosmetologically active ingredients with cleaning, anti-aging, anti-wrinkling, and sun-care functionalities. Talc, kaolinite, mica, and some smectites are the clay minerals used most frequently in cosmetic products, but several other phyllosilicates as well as modified and synthetic clays are also used. Sometimes, clays are useful in the design of cosmetics just because they are made of rigid, small, and anisometric particles. Kaolinite and mica are made of hard prismatic particles which are lightly abrasive over the skin, teeth, or hair. Electric charges in smectites result in ion-exchange capacities useful in the loading of active cosmetics but also adsorbing and cleaning waste substances. Intermediate net negative charges of smectites result in layer expansion in polar media and specific rheological properties that are very useful in cosmetic formulations. The absence of charged particles in talc and kaolin make them flow easily resulting in lubricant effects. Protection against radiation from the sun by clay particles and decorative effects complete the possibilities of clays in cosmetics. The nomenclature for clays used as ingredients in cosmetics follows historical use and the names of commercial products, rather than following strict compositional principles. In this sense, an effort was made here to correlate the names of the minerals that make up each of the clay-based cosmetic ingredients.

Clays are abundant materials in the Amazon region and have been used historically by ancient Amazonian people to produce ceramic and cosmetics products. The current study aimed to evaluate the potential of four clays from the metropolitan area of Manaus, each with a different color, for cosmetics applications. Two clays were collected in the Ponta Negra region (red and gray in color) in Manaus, one in Careiro (white), and one in Itacoatiara (black). After drying in an oven for 24 h at 105°C, the four clays were characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetry (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle-size analysis, and detection of microorganisms. The amounts of Al, Si, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Zn, P, and S in all samples were below the limits for use in cosmetics. The main phases identified were kaolinite 1A, quartz, gibbsite, and the rare kaolinite 2M. Approximately 40 wt.% of each sample was in the < 20 μm particle-size range. Analyses by SEM revealed pseudo-hexagonal kaolinite structures with nano-islands and nanocrystallites. The low toxicity, mineralogic compositions, and particle-size findings suggest that Amazonian clays are promising for cosmetics applications.

This article explores the role “whiteness” takes on in Mexico, where colonial, religious, and social heritages elevate it as an aesthetic ideal, simultaneously denying its underlying racism. It argues that skin tone is one of many physical and nonphysical features that together shape the concept of whiteness in a context of fluid, relational, and intertwined categories of class and racial classifications. Women in particular are pressured to “whiten” their bodies in adherence to beauty standards that reflect the collective aspiration of the country’s ethnically mixed society. Using empirical evidence, the article outlines Mexicans’ aesthetic perceptions and explores their attempts to approach these through bodily presentations and adjustments. It then discusses how the local beauty industry acts as a practical tool and a discursive mediator toward racialized appearances. Possessing its own historical, political, and racial background deeply entangled with whiteness, this sector reinforces the subjective basis of discriminatory practices in Mexico.

Seven commercial cosmetic clays having different colour (white, green, pink and red) available in pharmacies and herbalists’ shops in the Greek market have been examined for their trace element concentrations (Ag, As, Ba, Be, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, Hf, Hg, La, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, Sr, Tl, V, Y, Zn and Zr). According to EC Regulation 1223/2009 the presence of As, Be, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, P, Pb, Sb, Se, Te, Tl, Zr and their compounds is prohibited in cosmetics. The most abundant trace elements in the white clays were P (330 μg/g), Pb (220 μg/g) and Zr (11 μg/g) and for the green clays were P (1250 μg/g), As (43 μg/g), Cr (31 μg/g), Pb (30 μg/g) and Ni (23 μg/g). Red and pink clays had lower concentrations of these elements than their white and green counterparts. The green clays are three times enriched in As and the kaolinite-rich white clays are nine times enriched in Pb compared to the Average Shale. The main mineral phase in the white clays is either kaolinite or calcite, in green clays smectite, in pink clay kaolinite and talc and in red clays it is vermiculite. The specific activities of 238U, 226Ra, 228Ra, 228Th and 40K were determined by γ-ray spectroscopy. The kaolinite-rich white clays are more enriched in 238U-series radionuclides (238U and 226Ra) than the smectitic green clays. In contrast, the green clays were more enriched in 232Th-series radionuclides (228Ra and 228Th) and 40K than the white clays.

Several professional groups present themselves as ‘waging war’ on old age. They construct old age as a naturalised, self-evidently negative, biological phenomenon, which must be attacked and defeated. These groups make different claims to technical expertise and their ability to control natural phenomena, and use different weapons to defeat ageing. There are those who focus on cosmetic interventions, that is, the control of the body and the removal or masking of the signs of ageing. There are those who equate old age with ill-health and identify themselves as warriors in a battle with disease, and others whose objective is to understand the fundamental intra-cellular processes of ageing and what controls the human life span, and then to extend its limits. A fourth group aims to make human immortality possible. Examination of the language and symbolic practices of these groups reveals that they share a dominant cultural view that devalues old age and older people. The use of military metaphors to describe the importance and difficulties of their task is most prolific among the first and fourth of these groups. The second and third groups disguise a contradiction in their aim of understanding the diseases and disorders of old age by advocating the goal of an extended ‘healthy life span’, which avoids having to confront the moral dilemmas of extending the lifespan for its own sake.