5 Harmful Ingredients To Look Out For In Skincare Products

'Fragrance'

'Fragrance' or 'Parfum' is an umbrella term that could mean a number of things. Companies are not required to disclose what is in a 'fragrance' because of trade secret laws, as such, the term is often used to hide harmful ingredients such as allergens, irritants or worse.

'Fragrance' is present in the ingredients lists of a vast number of health products. As a general rule, if they don't tell you what's in their 'fragrance' don't trust the product.

Detergents

Most people would be suprised to find out that they are washing their face with a harsh, abrasive, synthetic substance but most cleansers (excluding oil cleansers) contain detergent and/or surfactants not just as a booster but as their active ingredient. If you've ever noticed redness or irritation from your facial cleanser this could be the cause.

Look out for Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Ethyl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) and more.

Pthalates

Phthalates are incorporated into plastic to prevent it from becoming brittle. Additionally, they serve as gelling agents, facilitating the blending of ingredients that typically do not mix and in certain shampoos and other grooming products to make them stick to the skin.

Phthalates have been associated with the risk of birth defects and the disruption of hormonal balance. They are currently banned from use in childrens products in Australia.

This is a huge concern as your skin is not a sealed barrier from the outside world, it absorbs most of what you put on it. ESPECIALLY if you have a skin condition or broken skin, anything applied to that area can go straight into your bloodstream.

Pthalates are also often hidden from ingredients lists using acronyms such as DEP, DMP, DBP, DINP, DNOP, BBP. It's also important to note that any skin products in plastic packaging likely leak pthalates into the products but it is not listed on the ingredients list.

Formaldehyde

Yep, the same chemical that they use to preserve corpses is used as a preservative in a range of cosmetics and household products.

A well-known, group one carcinogen.

In lower doses it's also linked to skin irritation, asthma and nuerotoxicity.

Companies often try to hide it in ingredients lists as formalin, morbicid acid, methylene oxide, methylaldehyde and methylene glycol.

Parabens

Another chemical preservative, parabens are linked to hormone disruption, cancer and sensitive skin. Parabens have been regulated in the EU due to their estrogenic effect, a study in Britain recently found that 19 out of 20 women had this chemical in their breast tissue. Gross.

Often in ingredients lists as methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben.

The Solution

With all of these (and many more) chemicals in modern products it's no wonder our skin is a mess no matter what we try.

Products that don't contain any of these ingredients are extremely rare, even in expensive 'natural' branded products. We believe this is because modern health and skincare brands and products have abandoned truly beneficial, simple practices compatible with human biology and that have been used for thousands of years. With essential nutrients in bioavailable forms ready to be greedily feasted upon by your skin cells.

They instead pursue cheap to produce, highly profitable, scalable industrially made products that give their consumers negligible benefit or even harm them. Why sell an all in one skin salve like tallow balm when you could sell moisturiser, night cream, acne cream, eczema cream, hand lotion and more? We're sick of corporates that put shareholders above customers, and you should be too.

A large corporation would never, and could never make a tallow balm like ours. They don't have relationships with local ingredient sources, they don't make a product with a human in mind, and they don't want to make you healthy, they have other products to sell you.

We're commited to making effective, natural products that will improve your skin, beauty and general health. We can relate to the insecurites that skin conditions cause, and the hopeless feeling of having tried everything to fix it. What do you think led to the creation of our product?

We're here to help you, that's a promise.