This post was written in response to a question from a subscriber. In reality there are no such thing as a product or ingredients that is “good” for everybody to use. Hypoallergenic is also a relative term. People can be allergic to so-called hypoallergenic products as well. In some cases the words “sensitive” and “hypoallergenic” are simply marketing ploys.
It is perhaps easier to try and address the issue of good skin care ingredients by pointing out ingredients that should preferably not be present in skin care products.
Broadly speaking a product should not contain any ingredients that is not essential to its function.
Colorants and perfumes are the first two ingredients that are definately non essential.
Preservatives, although necessary, should be minimized. Parabens e.g. methylparaben , ethylparaben , propylparaben and butylparaben are quite common causes of allergic contact dermatitis. Imidazolidinyl urea is another common preservative. The latter is known by many different names, including Quaternium-15 (Dowicil®), Diazolidinyl urea (Germall II®), DMDM hydantoin (Glydant®), Bromonitropropane diol (Bronopol™) and Tris (hydroxymethyl) nitromethane (Tris Nitro®).
In any product that contain water, preservatives are almost always essential, but they should be used at the lowest effective concentration.
Overly harsh surfactants (detergents) should also be eliminated as far as possible. Surfactants can strip excessive amounts of fat out of the skin, which will lead to dryness. The best example of a harsh surfactant is probably Sodium laureth sulfate.
I guess at the end of the day the product or ingredients to use are those that work for you! There are simply too many ingredients to provide a comprehensive answer to the question: What are good skin care ingredients. Very few ingredients have also been compared as far as efficacy and safety is concerned, so there are no ranking of ingredients from good to bad.
The above should serve as a good starting point when evaluating a product and will already eliminate a significant percentage of products!
1 response so far ↓
1 beautyscientist // Jun 27, 2008 at 3:33 pm
There is some good common sense in that article. I think that parabens are much safer than imidazolidinyl urea, which is a formaldehyde donor.
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