Phenolic compounds are valuable compounds possessing scavenging and complexing properties towards proteins. These abilities make them interesting compounds for the treatment of various diseases like cancer, and for anti-ageing purposes in cosmetic formulations, or nutraceutical applications. Unfortunately, these compounds lack long-term stability, making them very sensitive to light and heat. Moreover, phenolics often present a poor dispersion, mainly due to low water solubility. Lastly, many of these molecules possess a very astringent and bitter taste, which limits their use in food. Encapsulation would appear to be a promising approach to circumvent these drawbacks. Many encapsulation methods are described in this article, among which some have been successfully applied to plant phenolic compounds. After a general presentation of the chemical structure of widely famous phenolic compounds, encapsulation processes applied to polyphenols are reviewed. After a brief description of each encapsulation process, their applications to polyphenol encapsulation for garment, food and cosmetic purposes are presented.