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28.4.14

What chemicals should you be avoiding in your skin care?



Hi everyone,

Recently my skin has been going through a bit of a bad patch. I’ve had more spots than normal and it’s also gone quite dry where it is usually fairly oily, especially in the t-zone area. I also think it has been looking rather dull and just not in great condition or very healthy. I was talking to my mum about this and she also said that she thought her skin had been worse than normal recently.

This got us to thinking about which products we were using and which chemicals were in the products. I’ve never really paid much attention to the ingredients that are in my skin care before although I know I really should. I’ve always based my purchases on reviews and recommendations and just worked on a trial and error basis. However, I have decided it’s time to start thinking about what I’m putting on my skin a bit more and looking into the ingredients that make up the products.


I have done quite a bit of research on chemicals used in skin care and thought I would put together a blog post of my findings so that it might help a few of you who are wanting to know more about which chemicals you should try and avoid in your skin care products.

1)    Alcohols – particularly ethanol, ethyl alcohol and isopropyl. Alcohols can be very drying and can disrupt the skins normal PH levels which could cause irritation. There are some alcohols which are OK such as cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, behenyl alcohol, arachidyl alcohol and myristyl alcohol. These alcohols aren’t drying and are actually added to products as moisturisers and to improve the feel of the product on the skin.

2)   Parabens – These are often added to moisturisers, toners, cleansers and body lotions to name a few and act as a preservative to give products a longer shelf life. However, they can cause irritation to the skin and sometimes rashes.

3)   Sodium lauryl / laureth sulfate- This is another very drying ingredient so one to avoid particularly if your skin is already dry or if you suffer from dermatitis or eczema. It is used a lot in foaming cleansers, bubble baths, soap, shaving cream and shampoos.

4)   Chemical fragrances – These can cause allergies and skin irritations so products which contain natural fragrances such as essential oils are much better for your skin.

5)   Mineral Oil – Used in lots of lotions and cosmetics, mineral oil produces a barrier on the skin which prevents natural oils from coming out and blocks pores. This can then lead to spots developing from the clogged pores.

I am by no means an expert in this area and there are probably more chemicals that you should avoid in your skin care but these are the main ones which I have come across. I would suspect that in small amounts most of these won’t cause too much of an issue but like anything it will be down to the individual person and how their skin reacts to different things.

I guess the main point of this blog post is to raise the issue of whether we really know what’s in our products and what we are putting on our skin or whether we don’t pay that much attention to it. I’ve linked a few helpful articles at the bottom of this post in case you would like to read more about the chemicals I have mentioned.

Do you pay attention to what’s in your skin care or do you go off reviews and recommendations like I usually do?

Thanks for reading xx

http://smartklean.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/top-10-reasons-to-avoid-sodium-lauryl-sulfate/
Image taken from https://www.lamav.com/4-reasons-making-acne-even-worse/
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