To develop the application of saponins from sea cucumber cooking water in the field of cosmetics, three saponin fractions S1, S2 and S3 were obtained from sea cucumber cooking water with methods including alcohol precipitation, macroporous resin absorption and ethanol gradient elution, and characterized by Infrared spectra. The contents of total saponins in obtained saponin fractions were determined by vanillin-acetic acid method. 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method was adopted to measure the antioxidant activity of each fraction aqueous solution and ultraviolet spectrophotometric method was applied to determine the tyrosinase inhibitory activity, both of which comprehensively evaluated the whitening and antisenility efficacy of each saponin fraction. The results indicated that the fractions S1, S2 and S3 all contained triterpenoid saponins, mass fractions of which were 6.09%, 34.08% and 63.51% respectively. Among the three fractions, the fraction S2 aqueous solution possessed promising whitening and antisenility efficacy according to the higher DPPH free radical scavenging capacity and inhibitory action on tyrosinase activity. Specifically, when the concentrations were greater than or equal to 5 g/L, the scavenging ratios were kept at 92.5%, and when the concentrations were from 50 to 70 g/L, the inhibitory ratios were stable at 30.4%. Accordingly, this work was the continue efforts for the development of excellent cosmetic additives for skin whitening and antisenility.