"Cosmetopoiea" refers to popular uses of plants for traditional cosmetic and body care that have always existed in many countries and cultures over the world since centuries, but this concept is still very poorly documented under the form of written reports. We report herein on a first assessment on cosmetopoiea from tropical regions, which consists in reviewing the available literature data (related to ethnobotany and pharmacopoeia) in order to highlight the tropical trees and the taxa mostly used in traditional cosmetic or dermatology and, for some of them, treated as examples, to describe briefly their chemical composition and biological activities.