The beauty industry is ripe with confusing marketing. With so many products out there, it can feel hard to decipher which skincare is actually supportive. In the words of one of my teachers Robyn Mcalpine, “not all skincare is skin care.” The goal of this article is to help you feel informed when you go to purchase products. Using the wrong products on your skin or ingredients that don’t support your individual skin health can be harmful to the skin, and it’s the number one reason that I see a disrupted barrier (which leads to skin imbalances).
The first thing you should understand when you purchase products is what your skin type is. Is your skin more oily or dry? Your skin type is how much or how little oil your skin produces. Dry skin will reflect very small to invisible pores, and on the other end of the spectrum, oily skin will reflect large pores, and the skin will produce visible oil throughout the day even if you do not apply moisturizer. It is important to purchase products that are suited to your skin type, but it can be easy to get caught up in the new thing that an influencer is promoting. This is one benefit of working with an esthetician who has a trained eye to help you understand your skin type.
Look up ingredients
Reading the ingredient list on your skincare is just as important as reading the ingredient list on your food. It can feel a bit trickier, though, because often time the ingredients in skincare are harder to pronounce. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad ingredient, but if there is a product you use daily, I would google every single ingredient to find out exactly what it is doing on your skin.
The ingredients that I generally avoid include harsh surfactants, harsh emulsifiers, silicones, synthetic preservatives, fragrances, and citrus essential oils (citrus e.o.’s make the skin more sensitive to the sun and should only be used in the evening).
Surfactants are detergent-like ingredients. They break up oil on the surface- the problem is, our skin needs SOME oil on the surface… these ingredients can be really stripping, leading to bigger issues like a disrupted barrier. You will usually find them in gel or foaming cleansers. There are different types of surfactants; some examples of harsh surfactants include:
sulfates, including SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate)
sodium stearate
alpha olefin sulfonate
cocamidopropylamine oxide
Silicones sit on the surface of the skin, not allowing for an important function, respiration. With silicones, nothing is able to get in or out. This can be harmful to the skin barrier and to the cells. Silicones fill in lines and wrinkles like putty and are not doing anything to support the actual skin. They act more as makeup to improve appearance but not the health of the skin. They also bioaccumulate once they have washed down the drain and made their way to aquatic ecosystems, and then because they are not biodegradable will not break down for hundreds of years.
Examples include:
dimethicone
cyclopentasiloxane
dimethiconol
cyclomethicone.
cetearyl methicone.
cyclopentasiloxane.
Nonbiodegradable emulsifiers, emulsifiers are ingredients that bind water to oil- they prevent creams from separating in the bottle. However, they do not know the difference between the oil in the skin and the oil in the bottle and can attach to the oils on the skin and wash them away the next time you cleanse your skin. Over time, this can slowly strip the skin’s protective barrier and one day way up with dry, wrinkled, sensitive, textured skin because of years of emulsifier use.
Some nonbiodegradable emulsifiers include
stearic acid
Ceteareth-20
benzalkonium chloride
behentrimonium methosulfate.
and can be hidden in ingredients called PEGs
Synthetic preservatives are meant to be antibiotic, killing bacteria. The problem with this is that they kill the necessary flora on the surface of the skin. The skin’s microbiome is a key component to healthy glowing and protected skin.
Examples include:
Parabens
Benzophenone
BHA
BHT
Phenoxyethanol
Fragrance is a kind of catch-all term. In the US to 1300 different ingredients can be in this one name on the ingredient deck, some of them benign, some of them potentially harmful. This allows the company to have a proprietary blend for its fragrance, but this is problematic because it allows for a lack of transparency within the ingredient deck. Fragrance is the number one reason for contact dermatitis in skincare. It can cause redness and irritation, and it can also be endocrine disrupting.
You will see this listed on a label as:
perfume
parfum
fragrance
Just because something is expensive or a brand name doesn’t mean it supports the skin. Products sold in department stores like Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus are by in large companies that invest their money in marketing rather than in research and development or in high-quality ingredients. These products are often mass-produced and in deep disconnection with nature. Often these products contain many of the same ingredients that can be found in the products at the grocery store.
On the other end of the spectrum, cheap mass produced “#1 dermatologist recommended brands” also do not reflect that they care for the skin. Products like Cetaphil, and Cerave may seem benign, but they are filled with emulsifiers, surfactants synthetic preservatives. I would not use these products, and I would rather cleanse my skin with honey than use these.
Greenwashing
This one is one to pay attention to because this is a tricky one! Just because a brand is using clean ingredients, or has a green rating on the EWG, doesn’t mean the product supports the skin. Vegan, does not mean its skin is supportive. Cruelty-free is a must, but just because they use these labels doesn’t mean it is the best product for your skin.
I think the greatest tool in your tool kit when looking at skincare is discernment. The best way to integrate this into your purchasing process is to slow down, give yourself time to research and don’t make impulsive purchases. Is it too good to be true? Usually, with skincare- if something is promising a miracle- unfortunately, it’s probably too good to be true.