BACKGROUNDThe aim of this study is to separate polyphenols from grape pomace using a surfactant-based separation, colloidal gas aphrons (CGA) and to investigate their inhibitory activity against skin relevant enzymes, collagenase and elastase. Ethanolic (EE) and hot water crude extracts (HWE) were produced first and then the CGA generated using TWEEN20 were applied resulting in polyphenols enriched fractions (CGA-EE and CGA-HWE, ethanol and hot water extracts derived fractions, respectively). RESULTSBoth crude extracts inhibited the enzymes in a dose-dependent manner, however, further extraction by CGA led to fractions with higher inhibitory efficiency against collagenase. Although gallic acid was the main component of the CGA-HWE, others such as kaempferol must have contributed to its potency which was more than six times that of gallic acid. The CGA-EE was found to be about four times more efficient than its crude extract and more than six times more efficient than gallic acid for collagenase inhibition; quercetin was the major polyphenol in this fraction. CONCLUSIONIt is evident that ethanol and hot water extraction processes led to different polyphenols composition and thus different inhibitory activity against collagenase and elastase. Further separation with CGA increased the inhibitory potency of both extracts against collagenase. Overall the results here showed the potential for application of CGA fractions from grape extracts in cosmetics. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry