Harm of natural cosmetics or allergic reactions to cosmetic ingredients
Everyone knows and writes about the benefits of natural cosmetics, especially those made by hand. But does it have any downsides? For example, most often mineral oils are used in children's cosmetics, and not the whole variety of such useful base oils. Why do manufacturers protect children's skin? In this article, we will talk about allergic reactions to cosmetic components.
Allergy to cosmetics, how it manifests itself and what to do
Redness, peeling, swelling and itching - all this is a reaction that can occur to certain components of a cosmetic product. Allergy to cosmetics usually occurs exclusively in the place where you applied it.
Allergy can be immediate - it manifests itself literally immediately and most often manifests itself as hives: small itchy red pimples or just severe redness of the skin. However, in some people, allergies can manifest after a long time. During the use of a cosmetic product, substances unpleasant to the skin accumulate and the body gives a delayed reaction.
Allergies are essentially the skin's immune response to external influences, which manifests itself in damage to its own cells.
If you are a consumer of cosmetics and after applying a particular cosmetic product you notice an adverse reaction, remove it from your skin immediately and rinse well with warm water. If the reaction does not stop, you can take anti-allergy medications.
If you are prone to allergies of any kind, be sure to test new cosmetics on a small area of skin. The elbow test is quite informative. Apply a little cream or new serum to the elbow and wait a couple of hours. If there is no reaction, try applying the cream to a small area of your face. And if there is still no reaction, you can safely use a new product.
If you are a cosmetics manufacturer, we recommend that when creating a cosmetic product recipe, do not overload it with new components. After all, in this case, you simply will not be able to understand what exactly is causing your allergy. Introduce active ingredients one by one, test the creams for a while and, if there is no reaction, you can complicate the recipe with the next active ingredient. This way you will create your own personal list of cosmetic components that you and your clients do not react to and that you can safely use.
A selection of cosmetic components that can cause allergies
Unfortunately, there is no magic list of ingredients that all allergy sufferers are recommended to exclude. Each person may have an individual reaction, moreover, the same person may change their reaction to a particular component at different periods of life.
In 2007, the European Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety approved the so-called "List 26". It contains exactly those 26 substances that most often cause an allergic reaction. These substances can be added to cosmetics, but a notice of their presence in the composition must be placed on the label.
Allergy to substances in synthetic fragrances
Most often, allergic reactions are caused by synthetic fragrances that contain the following substances: Amyl cinnamal, Amylcinnamyl alcohol, Hydroxycitronellal, Hydroxymethylpentyl-cyclohexenecarboxaldehyde, Anisyl alcohol, Lilial, Methyl heptine carbonate, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone. Of course, these are not components of natural cosmetics, but natural cosmetics are not far behind in terms of the number of allergic reactions. If you choose a fragrance to flavor a cosmetic product, be sure to test it, or immediately choose fragrances from the list of hypoallergenic ones. In such fragrances, the most common allergens are excluded from the composition.
Allergy to natural ingredients in cosmetics
The main champion among the components that cause allergies is essential oils, or rather the components that they contain. Allergic reactions can be caused by oils of jasmine, hyacinth, ylang-ylang, cinnamon, Peruvian balsam, citrus, tonka bean, bay, clove, nutmeg, tuberose... Actually, all essential oils. For example, Linalool is an alcohol that belongs to terpenoids, it is contained in 200 different essential oils and is a substance that can cause an allergic reaction. We do not want to say that you need to stop using essential oils, no! Just when developing recipes or choosing cosmetics, take into account the fact that essential oils can cause a hyperreaction on sensitive and/or allergy-prone skin.
Quite often, plant extracts can cause an allergic reaction, they also contain a whole cocktail of various very active substances. In the case of extracts, always pay attention to the original raw material, that is, if you are allergic to nuts, then you need to be very careful when using walnut extract with a mandatory preliminary patch test. If a person is allergic in itself, then citrus extracts and flower extracts are very likely to cause an allergic reaction. The same applies to base oils. We had a case when a client developed an allergy to refined almond oil. But it is not the oil that is to blame, but the characteristics of the body of a particular person.
Honey-based actives, although very useful, are absolutely natural, but can also cause an allergic reaction. If after a teaspoon of honey you feel an itch on your face, your eyes swell, then it is unlikely that lip balm based on beeswax will do you any good. You need to look for other waxes, perhaps even synthetic ones. And of course, do without adding propolis tincture as a co-preservative.
Lanolin is a component of animal origin, a lubricant of sheep wool, which can cause redness, itching and swelling in allergy sufferers. This wax-like substance is often used in cosmetics and has a very beneficial effect on healthy skin, but at the same time it contains a whole bunch of active substances that have not yet been fully studied and can cause a negative reaction on sensitive skin. Now on the market of cosmetic raw materials there are products based on plant materials, which in terms of properties replace animal lanolin. In the Beurre store you can buy plant lanolin, which serves as an emollient in cosmetics and the basis for creating lip glosses.
Preservatives are contained in all cosmetics, and if you see the inscription “No preservatives” on the label - run from this product. After all, preservatives protect cosmetics from contamination by microorganisms, and if these microorganisms are not “killed”, the probability of an allergic reaction is even higher than with the most unnatural preservative.
As for preservatives, you need to know how to choose them. So, parabens and formaldehydes can cause itching and swelling in people with damaged skin or if cosmetics are used close to mucous membranes (eyes, mouth). But the strongest allergen among preservatives is methylisothiazolinone. If you see these components in the composition of cosmetics or in the INCI ingredient, keep in mind the probability of a possible allergic reaction. We write “possible” because tons of cosmetics are made with these components and millions of people successfully use them. Therefore, if you decide to get a new preservative, make an aqueous or oil solution of this preservative and conduct a sensitivity test on the forearm or elbow. If everything is fine with you, you can safely make cosmetics with it.
When choosing a preservative, try to use “green” preservatives that have been certified by Cosmos and/or Ecocert. For example, the chic preservative Efficin LA based on levulinic acid, it is perfect for all water-based products with a pH of 5.5 and below. Or the mixed preservative Nipaguard SCE will preserve both water-based products and emulsions. It is most effective at a pH of 4.0 to 6.5 and dissolves either in oil or in a ready-made emulsion. Preservatives Cosgard and Euxyl K903 are similar in composition and are equally tolerant to the skin.
Sulfates are surfactants that can irritate the skin and cause an allergic reaction, because they are the most aggressive of all surfactants. If you are allergic, make sulfate-free recipes for detergents and washable cosmetics. Sulfates are anionic surfactants that provide a high degree of cleansing of the skin and hair. But the modern cosmetics market offers plant-based and very gentle on the skin anionic surfactants based on amino acids, which we recommend including in your recipes (even if you are not allergic, but simply love yourself). Among such surfactants, we would like to highlight: Amisoft CS-22 based on glutamic acid, Proteol OAT, which is made from oats, and Japanese Amilite GCS-12K from glycine.
Reaction to high concentration of the ingredient and photosensitivity
We would like to draw your attention to the possible skin reaction to the following ingredients:
- retinol
- vitamin C
- AHA acids.
Some people, especially if the skin is thin and sensitive, may experience a reaction of redness and inflammation, but without itching and swelling. It will look more like skin irritation. This is not an allergy, but a skin reaction to an excess dosage of a cosmetic ingredient, which occurs with increased sensitivity. For example, it is recommended to start using retinol with a minimum dosage so that the skin gets used to it, and then increase this dosage. In this case, you can avoid any negative reactions. And if you immediately take a cream with the maximum permissible % of retinol input, you can get the opposite result and remain dissatisfied with the cosmetic product.
You also need to understand that there are photosensitive components and ingredients that cannot be used before going out in the sun. We talked about this in detail in the article “Phototoxic ingredients”. If after using cosmetics with such components you go out into the open sun without SPF protection, a photoallergy will occur, since these components increase the photosensitivity of the skin. Such a reaction can occur in any person, even a non-allergic person, if you do not follow the dosage and neglect the rules for using photosensitizing ingredients.
It is important to carefully study the description of any new component, look at its INCI composition, working conditions and warnings, and draw the right conclusions for yourself. What is good for your neighbor Katya will not necessarily benefit you. And we, in turn, at the Beurre store do everything to ensure that the description of each component is as informative and complete as possible, and on the Beurre Cosmetic Kitchen YouTube channel we tell you about all the secrets of making natural cosmetics with your own hands.
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