Recreating a 2,000-year-old cream - New formula for a cosmetic giving a pale complexion?

news @ nature.com?-?Recreating a 2,000-year-old cosmeticbreaking science news headlines

citationThe researchers report in this week's Nature that the two major components, each making up about 40% of the total, were starch and animal fat.
The original cream is harder and more granular than the replica, but Evershed suspects that this is down to centuries of microbial action; the fat is likely to have changed most.

The remaining ingredient was synthetic tin oxide (or cassiterite). Although it is greyish in its natural state, it would have coloured the cream white. "If you mix the starch and fat together, you get quite a nice hand cream, but when you add the tin you get a translucent, white cream," says Evershed.

Question The microbial action on the fat might be questioned. I would expect a serious degradation over the years. It seems more likely that the fat base and/or starch were different or differently treated. Also a slow fat abiotic degradation catalized by the tin oxide seems to be possible.

I guess the cream is a water-in-oil emulsion?


see also Spincontrol ups efficacy testing for skin whitening products