Acne breakouts? Rosacea, eczema? Do not be afraid of moisture. Hydration heals!  Fragrance… irritates.                

The last thing any of these  above conditions need is alcohol, witch hazel, menthol, eucalyptus, a harsh toner, scrubbing component, exfoliating or strong acne clearing ingredients such as high percentages of sulfur and benzoyl peroxide, and lastly the synthetic highlights of this article:  fragrances, dyes, and colorants.  (i.e  non-skin healers)  These ingredients will only lead to more dryness and irritation and prevent the skin’s natural healing mechanisms from kicking into any beneficial action.  More often than not, these ingredients will not better the skin’s situation will make things worse.  Try these words on for size:  ‘soothing and hydration’.  Most typical over the counter products have a smidgeon of hydration or a calming ingredient thrown in the mix, but it has been so processed there is no tangible benefit offered to the consumer.  Additionally, all of the other ‘filler ingredients that are of a higher concentration negate those very few good ones.  Or, the order of ingredient percentages and concentrations are not ideal and although cleverly advertised on the label, will ultimately offer little to no correction or improvement.  (do you really need me to tell you this?  Think about all of the products you’ve tried that literally offered nothing, or at least left you with skin irritation to some degree, and you weren’t even finished with the product).  This irritation shows itself in the form of more redness, rashing, dryness, itchiness, flaking, blotchiness, on and on it goes.  What a vicious, irritating cycle this turns out to be.  Can your skin relate?

Did you know synthetic (artificial) fragrance and colorants and dyes are a primary cause of skin sensitivity and contact dermatitis?  Your skin may have been as tough as nails in your early years, but now ten, twenty, thirty years later you consider it sensitive, or as commonly call it, easily reactive.   That is because there may be hundreds of skin irritating and health disrupting chemicals all masked under one name in that beauty product:  “fragrance or parfum”;  that you have been buying and applying to your face and body for how many years now?  Several   years.

According to biochemist and author of  The New Science Of Skincare, Daniel Yarosh, this ‘fragrance’  formula does not need to be disclosed by the manufacturer.   Is usually at or near the bottom of the ingredient label.  Or at least for your skin and health’s sake I hope it is.  Unless the ingredient list is alphabetized, this is rather uncommon, ingredients that are higher up on the list contain the most active ingredients, or chemicals and make up the majority percentage of the skincare formula.   That would be a lot of unecessary skin irritation to be exposed to.  Product lines such as Aveda and Lancome come to mind with overabundance of fragrance.   

These fragrance and colorant ingredients serve no beneficial function to the skin.  But, they DO cause irritation beneath the surface leading to  a myriad of skin issues including:  a weakened barrier (protection  from the environment and topical skincare), more blood vessels (redness) due to added inflammation, damaged collagen (more wrinkles) to name a few.  After a short while your body may activate the histamine response from the immune system and bring on the itching, burning, flaking and hives to get your complete attention that your body, through exposure of the skin, did not like said product. 

It smells so pretty (sometimes) but it is never worth the possibility of any skin reaction or irritation no matter how long down the road it may be, in my book.  If your skin is perfect, you don’t have to pay attention to this post.  But if your skin is like mine, or if you had or are having health issues, you aren’t so genetically lucky, boy do you have to be careful and learn to avoid common irritating ingredients.