Could your other skincare products be full of ingredients that you shouldn’t actually be using on your skin?
When it comes to skincare, not everything included in product formulas is necessarily good for your skin. Open Formula formulas are created without these three groups of ingredients that could be causing wrinkles and damaging your skin. Here’s an explainer on which ingredients in skincare to avoid and why.
Essential Oils
This group of oils such as Lavender Oil, Tea Tree Oil, and Rosemary Oil might surprise you for being on the list of ingredients in skincare to avoid. The truth is, essential oils are not always skin-friendly - even if they make your home smell amazing.
However, they could be causing long-term damage to your skin that appears as stubborn redness, and even fine lines and wrinkles.
Essential oils are created by pressing and extracting flowers, seeds, stem, and even bark, depending on the plant to create a highly concentrated, oil-based extract. These concentrated oils come with many supposed benefits, such as antioxidant activity and anti-bacterial powers.
While this sounds good on the surface, there’s no way to guarantee that your skin can take advantage of these benefits without irritation, making essential oils a skincare ingredient to avoid.
Most worryingly, scientific studies have shown that repeated contact with essential oils can damage your skin’s natural moisture barrier, making your skin more prone to irritation, redness, and visibly flaky skin, the more you use them.
Petroleum Byproducts
Byproducts from the oil industry have found their way into many skincare products. But are these safe for skin, or skincare ingredients that you should avoid?
An Italian study found that hydrocarbons derived from Petrolatum are one of the most common contaminants found in the human body, and that cutaneous absorption is one of the ways that these molecules enter the body. Cutaneous absorption is simply the scientific way of saying that it was absorbed through the skin.
Because of how frequently Petrolatum was found in ingredient lists of products in the study, it means that cosmetics and skincare is one of the most common sources of exposure.
Sulfates
When it comes to cleansers, many contain this irritating family of ingredients. The most common and most irritating to skin is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS).
Studies have found that when products with SLS are used on skin, it causes water loss of the skin, leading to visible dryness and dehydration. This means over time, repeated applications can damage your skin’s moisture barrier for irritated, red, and peeling skin.
While commonly found in facial cleansers, it’s a skincare ingredient to avoid in shampoo, body wash, and toothpaste too. Make sure to double check all of these for this pesky skincare ingredient!
Ingredients to Avoid in a Moisturizer: The Bottom Line
Making sure that your skincare products are formulated with only beneficial ingredients to skin is important to having an effective skincare routine. These ingredients to avoid can be the cause of premature wrinkles and long-term irritation to your skin without you even realizing! Make sure you include only high-performance, expertly-formulated skincare in your routine for best results.
