Creams are viscous semisolid emulsions with a base that varies in consistency depending on the oil and water used in the formulation (Chang et al., 2013). Creams may be Ayurvedic, herbal, or allopathic (from synthetic chemicals) in origin and meant for the local application associated with the skin (Chauhan and Gupta, 2020). In general, creams are made up of several drug substances that can be dissolved or dispersed in a suitable base (Sahu et al., 2016). Interestingly, creams are less oily in nature, as they can easily be rinsed off with normal tap water. Therefore, creams are more comfortable and cosmetically suitable for certain applications. However, water-in-oil creams are used for moisturizing purposes because they contain a grease component that helps to prevent water leakage from the stratum corneum (Ansel et al., 1995). In brief, the stratum corneum was regarded as the outermost layer of the skin, where emulsifiers function as surfactants, including both hydrophilic and hydrophobic bases. The most widely used moisturizers are O/W emulsions (Dash and Singh, 2013, Draelos, 2018, Mohiuddin, 2019).

Evidence from past research suggested that toxicity is one of the major limitations associated with synthetic chemicals incorporated in the development of beautifying and cosmetic products, including creams (Barrett, 2005, Panico et al., 2019). It was further revealed from previous studies that long-term uses of these synthetic chemical-based creams produce serious chronic toxic effects such as skin sensitivity, allergy, and skin cancer-type life-threatening diseases. Synthetic chemicals like paraben derivatives as preservatives, used in many lotions and creams, can produce serious skin diseases like skin cancer and allergy at very low concentrations, especially in children (Zulaikha et al., 2015, Panico et al., 2019). In brief, some of these synthetic chemicals are supposed to be classified as carcinogens, neurotoxins, and reproductive toxins or may produce undesirable side effects such as permanent discoloration of the skin, damage to the nose and nasal passages, and hair allergy (redness in the scalp, hair fall, excessive dandruff, and thinning of the hair) (Alnuqaydan and Sanderson, 2016, Lee et al., 2019, Liu et al., 2022). Some of the studies also accounted for the comparison of synthetic and herbal-based cosmetic formulations (Karimi et al., 2015, Agarwal et al., 2019). Recently, one of the study elaborately discussed the utility of biocosmetics, including herbals as natural, safe, and effective ingredients over synthetic ingredients (Goyal and Jerold, 2021).

Currently, growing concern about herb-based cosmetics products is in greater demand due to their negligible toxicity and side effects, while herbal cosmetics products are reported to provide nutritional benefit to the skin, according to several published studies (Sharma et al., 2022). In general, herbal creams are used to shield the skin from various obstacles and provide a calming effect and a healthy glow (Mohiuddin, 2019). Additionally, herbal creams are frequently utilized for various cosmetic applications such as skin cleaning, beautification, and nourishment. Among creams, cold, cleansing, disappearing, day, night, all-purpose, and massage are some of the most attractive products on the market and are currently available with different herbal ingredients (Chauhan and Gupta, 2020). Some of the popular ingredients, such as water and dimethicone, that are regarded as non-hypoallergenic are widely utilized in products for oily complexions. Whereas water, vegetable or mineral oil, dimethicone, and propylene glycol, with small quantities of petrolatum, are the main ingredients of cream meant for application on normal skin. Many different formulations for several facial requirements can be established by changing the exclusivity of the primary moisturizing ingredient.

Additionally, herbal creams are classified as both medicated and non-medicated types on the basis of their localized skin application. Most medicated creams are designed to be applied topically to improve drug delivery to specific sites in the skin for skin disorders, including skin aging, wrinkles, dark spots, blemishes, uneven skin tone and pigmentation, etc. (Rai et al., 2019, Rattanawiwatpong et al., 2020). Moreover, skin aging is a biological condition in which fibroblasts undergo a variety of external and internal changes due to the involvement of various biochemical, cellular, and clinical parameters responsible for thinning of the epidermis (Waller and Maibach, 2005, Farage et al., 2008, Crisan et al., 2015, George et al., 2022). Further, research has mainly focused on skin aging, such as the presence of intrinsic aging, or chronological aging (an inevitable phenomenon), and extrinsic aging, or photoaging (an avoidable phenomenon), respectively (Braverman and Fonferko, 1982, Kohl et al., 2011). Besides this, photochemical changes are mainly accompanied by dry, rough, pigmented, and abraded skin in people who live in warm climates and are frequently exposed to direct sunlight, followed by a reduction in fibroblasts on the extracellular matrix of the skin (Farage et al., 2007, Callaghan and Wilhelm, 2008).

In the recent past, several creams, including herbal creams, have been developed with varying compositions and tested for therapeutic safety and efficacy, attracting considerable attention from both academia and industrial researchers. The herbal creams contain mainly natural substances extracted from herbal plants that have health and nutritional benefits without toxic or adverse effects. The cream bases that have been used to formulate the creams are also obtained from herbal plants. Moreover, the published literature mainly focuses on various aspects of cream formulation only and still lacks any compiled explanatory review on herbal creams (Chauhan and Gupta, 2020). Therefore, we designed the present communication to accomplish the current requirements of Industry and academia related to herbal cream composition, classification, preparation and manufacturing methods, clinical and therapeutic applications.