"10 skin care ingredients that I avoid & why"

1. Silicone derived emollients
Silicone emollients are occlusive and are used to create a watertight film on top of the skin to lock in moisture. Listed under the names of Dimethicone, Dimethicone Copolyol or Cyclomethicone, these show up in over 80% of all skin-care and cosmetics such as foundation, primers, concealers and the popular BB creams. While they make application smoother, these compounds coat the skin, making it impossible for the skin to breathe. This is why they are often described to be like a plastic wrap suffocating the skin and trapping anything beneath it. Prolonged usage can cause skin irritations and breakouts for some people. In addition, it also means it would be difficult for any of your skin care goodies to penetrate into your dermis layer effectively, which I believe causes products to become ineffective after a period of time.

2. Petroleum-based ingredients
These are byproducts of petroleum and include ingredients such as petrolatum, mineral oil, and paraffin which also block your skin and coat it like plastic, thus clogging up the pores. When the skin cannot breathe properly, it builds up toxins and leads to all kinds of issues. So these are definitely no no for me when it comes to skin care products. While, I may not mind using a lip balm containing petrolatum but somehow they’ve never really worked very well for my lips.

3. Beeswax
For the same reason as silicones, mineral oils and petrolatum, I avoid beeswax in facial products as far as possible. Although beeswax is a natural ingredient, it is a form of impermeable oil that coat the skin, making it impossible to breathe too. It also has to be heated at high temperature to be melted into an ingredient mix, which means the product is unlikely to have anymore live cells to benefit our skin. This ingredient is commonly found in lip balms and lipsticks but I’ll avoid this ingredient in facial products and even body care products as far as possible.

4. Citrus Oils
Although citrus oils are natural, they can cause photosensitivity when applied topically. Common examples of citrus oils include Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Peel Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil and Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime) Oil. Others are bergamot, cumin, lemon, lemongrass, rue, angelica root and petitgrain. I may not mind if the product consist of one or two citrus oils and they’re listed at the bottom of the ingredient list but if it’s a combination of many citrus oils, I would definitely avoid.

5. Lavender oil
Topically, lavender oil is cytotoxic and increases photosensitivity. I would avoid products containing lavender oil or lavender essential oil as the key ingredient. If it is listed at the bottom of the ingredient list, I would be less concerned. I also avoid linalool as far as possible as this is a major component of the essential oil of lavender.

6. Sulfates
I avoid facial cleansers containing Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and or Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES). These are harsh detergents that are used in cleansers, soaps and shampoos and will strip our skin of its natural lipids.

7. Alcohol derivatives
As a whole, I avoid any products containing alcohol. Those like ethanol, ethyl alcohol, denatured alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, and SD alcohol are solvents derived from petroleum and are extremely drying and irritating to the skin. With prolonged usage, these may strip the skin’s natural immune barrier, promote the formation of brown spots and cause premature aging of the skin. And even though cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol and lanolin alcohol are said to be beneficial in skin care, I tend to avoid them as far as possible too.

8. Fragrances
Some fragrances listed as musk or 6-methylcoumarin can cause photosensitivity too. Hence, I generally avoid facial products containing fragrance unless they are derived from essential oils.

9. Hydroquinone
This ingredient is not so common and only used in some skin whitening products. I’ve used the ingredient before as prescribed by a dermatologist but this ingredient is terribly damaging as it thins out the skin when used after a few weeks. When the skin becomes thinner, it also means that the skin becomes more proned to sensitivity and damage under the sun.

10. Alpha- and Beta-hydroxy acids (AHA/BHA)
I avoid creams and lotions containing AHA or BHA altogether as these ingredients also make our skin more sensitive to the sun. I have so far only tried Murad AHA/BHA Exfoliating Cleanser and I don’t mind it so much only because it doesn’t stay on my skin for a prolonged period. But having said that, I don’t use the product any longer now.

Parabens
You will notice that I didn’t include parabens in my list. Actually, I don’t mind parabens that much unless if I see a whole bunch of them like Ethyl, Methyl, Propyl and Butyl Parabens in an ingredient list. If it’s just one or two of them and they’re listed right at the bottom, they don’t bother me that much. However, since I’m using more natural and organic products, they do not contain parabens anyway.

For beauty sake
As you can see, my reasons for avoiding such ingredients stem from a beauty standpoint such as fear of photosensitivity or skin suffocation rather than a health standpoint because the ingredients are toxic. Typically, I avoid products – natural or otherwise – with a long ingredient listing as I am not familiar with some of the ingredients and I also have a tendency to miss or misread some words along the way. Additionally, I do not believe that effective products need to have a long list of ingredients. What’s more important are the active ingredients used in the formulation. As I’ve written in my entry 5 things to know about skin care labels, only the top 33% of the ingredients matter.

So what about you? Are there any ingredients you avoid in particular?

source vivawoman blog. one of my favorite skincare blogs. coincidentally, the majority of the things listed break me out but everyone is different.

p.s i dont think she was being literal when she says skin breathes. i'm sure she's aware the skin does not have a set of lungs in each pores. it's a metaphor. she's a consumer not a scientist.

Stevia extract on pimples

Has anyone heard of it? It comes up in a lot of books when I searched on google books. It is known to help healing and clearing pimples. I tried it but I'm not sure if the pimples went down because of the Stevia extract alone. If you have it in your cupboard for eating, try it on your next zit as a spot treatment. It doesn't burn either.

Avoiding food allergies help the most

I got my blood tested for food allergies earlier this year and it's been a couple months of removing the foods. For me it's:
wheat (cut out of diet)
oats
rice
tomatoes
strawberries (don't eat anyways)
corn (don't eat anyways)
dairy (didn't come up on test but i know i am)

I used to eat a lot of whole wheat but after I would eat it, I would get a sinus headache right between my eyes and my nose would feel clogged. I never thought much but it would explain the massive break outs I would get after eating. Wheat was the only food who gave those symptoms to ME. Not everyone has an allergy to wheat. I do not have Celiac disease btw.
I felt find eating rice and oats but I avoid oats since he said it was the highest on my list.
I noticed that when I ate tomato sauce I would break out. Once I stopped eating that my break outs lessened.

None of the food allergies listed made me break out in hives or throat closing type deal. They will create inflammation in your body though so it's best to avoid.

You can go to your regular doctor and request an allergy test. For me, he gave me a referral and the allergist performed the tests. First is the back prick test with the food enzymes on it. If it creates inflammation, then you're allergic. If there are any doubts, they will draw blood at another office.

AcneFree Green Tea Skin Moisturizer

i'm a little weary of some ingredients and i can only find one review.

Neem oil SHRUNK my cystic acne in 4 days

I have read about neem oil and have tried neem soap in the past but coconut oil doesn't react to my skin well so I gave up hope with neem.

Then 4 days ago I went into Vitamin Shoppe and bought 1 oz of neem oil for $9. By the way, you can buy it online at their store or any other place online. It doesn't smell pleasant but I would have done anything to shrink this massive cystic breakout. I had 5 cystic pimples bigger than my pinky nail and was NOT budging with BP 10% or any mask I used.

The smell is a mix of peanuts and garlic. But when I cover the infected area with a cotton ball it is cut down dramatically and by the second night I got used to the smell.


What I did:
The neem oil is too thick at room temperature to use the dropper so I used a q-tip to apply it all over the infected area. It does not break you out to use it on your face which was surprising because it looks very pore clogging by it's texture in the bottle. Once it hits your face it melts instantly and that's why I saturate a cotton ball stretched out over the pimples.
Overnight I saw some results but I was waiting for a nasty whitehead to pop up like I'm used to with BP 10%. Nope. Nothing like that happened. It was really strange. The cystic pimples just kept on shrinking and NO IRRITATION or dry skin!

Hopefully this photo will show you the difference.
The picture before neem was taken on Sunday and I highly doubt it would have been this small by itself. Before it was highly risen off my face and stuck out like a sore thumb.
I didn't take a before photo of my 4 other cystic pimples but they are completely flat and no irritation, burning, peeling or major inflammation.

If you can get over the smell, then I highly suggest trying this out for 5 days and seeing if it works for you.