Monday, July 6, 2009

STOP! Put that down and listen to my story


Many of you ladies ... and gentlemen, have purchased cosmetics,lotions, sprays, cleansers, gels, etc that fraudulently advertised “non-comedogenic”, “wont clog pores”, “dermatologist tested”. It would be nice to trust your skin to a group of professionals that spent a good half of their life in college, unfortunately, it is difficult to do so. Ever purchased an acne kit, that claimed to erase your problems forever, I have, and to my surprise it didn’t work. To an even bigger surprise it didn’t work for many others even though according to the celebrity endorsing it the product was a sure thing. Why does this happen? For two very big and annoying reasons.

Reason 1 : Cosmetic lines have peddled products riddled with pore clogging ingredients for decades. Even the ones that are supposedly “anti-acne” contain a despicable collection of chemicals that are cheap to use for the companies as preservatives, dyes, thickening agents, etc. These chemicals are too small to be effectively washed away and end up accumulating in your pores. Then, before you know it the product that you purchased four weeks ago just made you horrifically break out. We do not have radars on our skin to tell us what to use and what not to use. We solely depend on pharmaceutical companies to be honest and helpful. Although not all of the products are deceitful a good number are which is why I have created the following list of avoidable ingredients.

Note: The ones with exclamation marks really should be avoided at all cost. If any one of them appears within the first eight ingredients please chuck the product. PLEASE.


Acetylated Lanolin
Acetylated Lanolin Alcohol
!!!! Algae Extract (wow, sounds natural right?)
Algin
Butyl Stearate
!!!! Carrageenan
Ceteareth 20
Cetearyl Alcohol + Ceteareth 20
Cetyl Acetate
Cocoa Butter
Coconut Butter
Coconut Oil
Cotton Awws Oil
Cotton Seed Oil
Crisco
D & C Red # 17
D & C Red # 21
D & C Red # 3
D & C Red # 30
D & C Red # 36
Decaglyceryl decaoleate
Decyl Oleate
Dioctyl Succinate
Disodium Monooleamido PEG 2-Sulfo
Ethoxylated Lanolin
Ethylhexyl Palmitate
Glyceryl Stearate
Glyceryl Stearate SE (NSE ok)
Glyceryl-3-Diisostearate
Grape seed oil
!!!! Hexadecyl Alcohol
Hexylene glycol
Hybrid safflower oil
Hydrogenated lanolin
Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
Isocetyl Alcohol
!!!! Isocetyl Stearate
Isodecyl Oleate
Isoparaffin C13-16
Isoparaffin C9-11
!!!! Isopropyl Isostearate
Isopropyl lanolate
!!!! Isopropyl Linolate
!!!! Isopropyl Myristate (this one is a killer)
Isopropyl Palmitate
Isostearic acid
Isostearyl alcohol
Isostearyl Isostearate
Isostearyl Neopentanoate
Laneth-10 acetate
!!!! Lanolic acid
Lanolin
Lanolin Alcohols
Laureth -23
Laureth 4
Lauric Acid
Mink Oil
!!!! Myreth 3 myristate
Myristic Acid
Myristyl Lactate
!!!!Myristyl Myristate
!!!! Myristyl propionate
Octyl dodecanol
Octyl Palmitate
!!!! Octyl Stearate
!!!! Oleic Acid
!!!! Oleth-3
Oleyl Alcohol
Peach kernel oil
PEG 16 Lanolin
PEG 200 Dilaurate
PEG 8 Stearate
PG Monostearate
Polyglyceryl-3-Diisostearate
!!!! Potassium Chloride
PPG 15 stearyl ether
PPG 2 Myristyl Propionate
PPG 5 Ceteth 19 Phosphate
Propylene Glycol Monostearate
Propylene glycol stearate
!!!! Red Algae
Shark Liver Oil
!!!! Sodium Chloride (Salt)
Sodium Laureth Sulfate
!!!! Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
Solulan 16
Sorbitan Oleate
Sorbitan Sesquinoleate
Soybean Oil
Steareth 10
Stearic acid
Stearic Acid Tea
Stearyl Heptanoate
Sulfated Castor Oil
Sulfated Jojoba Oil
Sweet Almond Oil
Syearyl Heptanoate
Wheat Germ Glyceride
!!!! Wheat Germ Oil
Xylene

Quite a list huh? If you want, you cant minimize the font, print it out and carry it with you. I know its a hassle and sounds crazy but this is your skin, it absorbs everything. You wouldn’t be ok spraying DDT on it, yet half of these chemicals are just as horrible, so please take caution.

List on common irritants (sensitive skin types please avoid even if it sounds nice or refreshing)

Alcohol, Alcohol Denat., Flowers of Sulfur , Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA), Cajeput Oil, Caprylic Acid,Tridectyl Neopentanoate, SD Alcohol 40, Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Menthol, Isopropyl Alcohol, Colloidal Sulfur (just nasty)

Its funny that menthol, something used in “natural” hollistic skin care is a cheap, common irritant. Yes it smells divine, and feels good, however it also irritates, may cause allergic reactions, and is just completely unnecessary.

Reason 2:

Why sell natural ingredients that are good for people, when you can easily bombard a huge audience with extremely strong bactericidal agents? Ever heard of benzyl peroxide and its side-kick salicylic acid? You probably not only heard but OD'd on them at some point in your life. These two chemicals (I refuse to call them any other way) are the golden children of most skin care care lines. They are affordable, easy to produce ad work well, for a very small amount of time. Benzyl peroxide from my personal experience completely dried out my skin. My cheeks were red, unhealthy and I could barely smile since everything was so stiff and sore. Ideally BP gets into pores and annihilates the bacteria residing within them that causes acne. Unfortunately its so strong that in reality it attacks not only bacteria but everything within the pore, including natural oils that serve as a UV shield, various hydration sources and many other components and should be left on your skin. In addition your skin gets addicted to it, and when you stop using BP the bacteria inside the pores goes completely insane which can takes days to adjust. In conclusion BP should be used on teenagers with extremely active sebaceous glands that can only be tamed by industrial strength chemicals. Salicylic acid, is the lesser of two evils. Its main purpose is to push out dirt and dead skin cells that accumulate in your pores. In summary, on a good day, Salicylic acid is an effective exfoliating agent. However, it too can be troublesome, causing redness and irritation, which is why i suggest it should be administered every other day or two- three times a week in order to give your skin some rest! WHOOO what a lecture! Read on to see the hundreds of options you have in your battle against acne.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, thank you for your information. I interested to cajeput oil and I research on internet before visit your blog.

    ReplyDelete

 
Natural beautiful healthy skin Blog Directory Add to Technorati Favorites Healthy Glowing Skin - Blogged Bloglisting.net - The internets fastest growing blog directory Blog Search Health Blogs - Blog Rankings Beauty blogs & blog posts blog search directory My Zimbio
Top Stories blog search Blog Directory Wil's Domain
Blog Directory  engine blogarama - the blog directory
Musings of a Muse