Natural polymers, gums and resins, have been used in the industry since the early 1940s as water-soluble binders, thickeners, and film- forming agents. In today’s products they are added to many cosmetics formulations to fulfill these various functions, but often they are used simply because of the growing consumer demand for ‘‘natural products.’’ There are drawbacks, however, to the use of polymers isolated from natural sources: they vary in purity and physical appearance, and theyarerelativelyexpensive,comparedtocommonsyntheticpolymers.Problemssecuring