Beauty

[StillRachB]

This is an article copied from a website I follow called Well and Good. I'd post the link but don't want to get poofed. I'm not a fan of the product because to me it's not a cleanser. It didn't clean my bare face, let alone any makeup. Although I don't like it for myself, I'm not taking a side here, just sharing what I think is an interesting article. Just something to think about if you happen to use Cetaphil.

ARTICLE:

Cetaphil probably has the best PR of any facial soap. Beauty magazines gush over it as a no-frills $8 must-have. Dermatologists love to recommend it as a mild and non-irritating facial cleanser for two reasons: it doesn’t contain fragrance and, more tellingly, because MDs have a big Pharma love affair with the manufacturer, Galderma, the offspring of Nestlé and L’Oréal, which also makes acne drugs like Differin.

And yet there’s nothing healthy about this face-washing prescription.

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser contains just eight ingredients: water, cetyl alcohol, propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, stearyl alcohol, methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben.

All but the water are chemically manufactured (let’s hope), and propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, and the three parabens have a seat on the dirty dozen, a list of cosmetic ingredients to avoid as potentially toxic.

One look at the label and you’ve got to go “Wait a minute! What?” says Spirit Demerson, who analyzes skin-care ingredients for Spirit Beauty Lounge, her online natural beauty store. “Cetaphil does not contain even one single beneficial ingredient and what it does contain is the equivalent of toxic sludge. Whether you think it’s keeping your skin healthy or not, it is absorbed into your bloodstream and research has proven almost all of the few ingredients in it are carcinogenic. I know it’s hard to imagine that washing your face can give you cancer but it’s worth consideration.”

Julia March, a top NYC facialist, says that so many New Yorkers believe that Cetaphil is healthy, they tend ignore the ingredients completely. “Cetyl alcohol, an emollient used in many cosmetics, is essentially a wax,” says March. “Propylene glycol is a common humectant (meaning it brings moisture from the air to the skin), but it also enhances product and chemical penetration into the skin and blood stream. Sodium lauryl sulfateis a foaming agent, and skin and eye irritant, that disturbs the healthy lipid barrier of the skin, and parabens are a group of preservatives being phased out for potential health risks.”

Given that there’s actually nothing clean about this cleanser, it’s rather amazing that millions of women think their skin will freak out if they use anything else. “It may not irritate skin very much, but it probably won’t help it much either,” says Nicole Yih, Assistant Spa Director at the Mandarin Oriental New York. That’s because there’s nothing in Cetaphil that nurtures skin. No antioxidants that help fight free radical damage; not a dribble of omega-rich plant seed oils that fortify the skin barrier; and not a drop of skin-calming botanicals.

A cleanser that you use twice a day should be judged on what it gives your skin. Consider this your new cleanser criterion.

[dex]

@StillRachB ok that is the brand I have been using...what brand do you like?I find that no matter which direction I go to eat healthy or use safer products that some new study comes along and I get a new set of guidelines.I am never sure anymore about any of my health related choices as being the best I can do.

[NativeJax]

So what is an alternative? Its irritating to read the labels, just put on the label.... paraben free, cruelty free, all natural....tagline "you will surely die, just not from facewash or lotion made by said company"....

I do care but not enough to try and wade thru all the ingredients....

Here lately, all I care to know is if they test on animals and is it safe for the environment .I have been finding out many of the products I love do not say this....

Anyway, you could wash your face with homemade mayonnaise and die crossing the street....I gotta pick my battles...it's not going to be over facewash;-)

[StillRachB]

@dex i use mostly Arbonne with some Paula's Choice mixed in.

[Tsukiko]

I can't use this cleanser. It really irritates my skin, sort of a burning sensation. I like Cerave's creamy cleanser.

[StillRachB]

@NativeJax your last line cracked me up. So true!

[NativeJax]

@StillRachB.....

I am so glad it made you laugh:-)

[Trix]

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"Anyway, you could wash your face with homemade mayonnaise and die crossing the street....I gotta pick my battles...it's not going to be over facewash;-)"  @NativeJaxFunny line, but so true.  

[Toppers3]

Interesting article.

I found the comments about botanicals to be interesting, too.

The skin on my face is very sensitive, and I have to be careful about what I use on it. I try and stay away from most botanicals on my face, especially. 

For me personally, just because something is natural, doesn't mean that it is safe for me to use on my face or skin. 

I find that the less ingredients that something has in it for me, the better that it is for me to use. 

[StillRachB]

@NativeJax that's why I'm having triple chocolate cream pie for dessert tonight.