Caviar extract has occupied a privileged position in premium skin care for decades. Yet, for all the marketing built around it, one basic scientific question has often remained insufficiently examined: what does commercial ‘caviar extract’ actually contain? For many years, the industry has treated caviar extract as a relatively simple ingredient story: an extract obtained from sturgeon roe. That description is understandable at a commercial level, because caviar is the processed roe of sturgeon. The European Commission’s CosIng entry for Caviar Extract, for example, describes it as an extract of the eggs of sturgeon.