Inspired by a recent article recently posted by Grace called 'Dangerous Ingredients in Our Beloved Beauty Products‘ I am going to start a series called ‘Know your ingredients’ which will go up under my new skincare tab on my header.
Kicking off this series, I am going to
start with an ingredient I recently came across in one of my everyday cleaners
called ‘Phenoxyethanol’. I can barely spell this ingredient, let alone say it
but it is an ingredient popping up a lot in products at the moment
Phenoxyethanol is a glycol ether, which is
an organic chemical compound used in cosmetics as a preservative, as Cosmetics
companies see it as a less toxic option when compared to Parabens or
Formaldehyde. Now while you can find Phenoxyethanol in green tea, the cosmetic
ingredient is NOT plant derived and is synthetically
produce in a company.
There is a bit of a controversy over this
ingredient as no one can agree whether or not this ingredient is perfectly safe
or not. Over exposure to Phenoxyethanol
can worsen eczema, cause vomiting, contact dermatitis, and at its worse shut down the body’s
central nervous system. Now before you start throwing away all your skincare
products, the majority of these tests are use 100% concentrations on
Phenoxyethanol and in cosmetics, the concentration varies between 0.5% and 1%
and also none of the available test data is conclusive.
Now with everything, small proportions
generally do not do any harm to your skin and current regulations advises that
this ingredient should only be used in proportions under 1% so ALWAYS check
your product ingredients to estimate what percentage is being used. Ingredients are always listed in proportional order, so if you see
Phenoxyethanol really high up on the product’s ingredient list, then the
manufacturer may be using more than 1%.
Obviously it’s up to you whether you
choose to boycott this ingredient or not. I personally see it as a compromise
as only moderate levels of this ingredient is dangerous. I’m not a natural and
organic product extremist so I know I probably wont cut this product out
completely, I think I’m fine using it on my face as it’s a small area of my
body. I’m not comfortable with using moisturizing lotions that contain this
ingredient on large surface areas as these absorb into the skin really quickly.
So
what do you think about this product? It’s safer than Parabens and Formaldehyde
but there is a potential for it not being 100% great for you.
