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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