Anyone who buys shower gel is being warned to look out for common ingredients which could be harmful to your health, as well as to the environment.
According to cosmetics firm Typology, shower gels can often contain harsh additives which can be damaging to your skin, and urged shoppers to look out for three types of ingredients.
First, it explains that all cosmetics products are labelled based on what’s known as the INCI List. This means ‘International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients’, and is a global standard for cosmetic ingredient naming. It says: “Today, this system registers about 20,000 ingredients and is used in Europe, China, Japan, the United States and many other countries.
“It allows greater transparency for the consumer but also a better identification of problematic ingredients. On the other hand, this list does not allow us to know the exact quantities, nor the origins of the raw materials and their manufacturing methods.”
Looking at a typical shower gel against this INCI list, most shower gels are 70% water (‘aqua’), followed by 20% surfactants and the rest is preservatives and gelling agents.
It adds: “However, for shower gels, the most important aspect is to choose the right cleansing base. Indeed, the chosen surfactants can either be irritating/allergenic and/or problematic for the environment or health, or very gentle and well tolerated by all skin types.”
Typology explains that there are three types of additives to look out for and beware of. First, antibacterial preservatives. It says: “Some preservatives can be particularly irritating and allergenic, even harmful to health. However, they are essential in the composition to maintain the quality of the shower gel and ensure consumer safety by inhibiting the proliferation of microorganisms (composed of about 70% water).
“Among them, we can mention the phenoxyethanol considered harmful to health, and even more so in children, as it is suspected to be an endocrine disruptor, the paraben derivatives recognisable by the suffix -paraben at the end of the name (e.g.: “Propylparaben”, “Butylparaben”, “Isopropylparaben”, etc…), or even the methylchloroisothiazolinone and the methylisothiazolinone for their high allergenic potential that even their maximum concentration in cosmetic products has been reduced.”
Next up are pH regulators, used to stabilise the acidity level of cosmetics. It says: “Among the problematic substances, we can mention certain alkanolamines such as the “Triethanolamine” (TEA), which, with a very low risk, can form nitrosamines known to be carcinogenic in the presence of nitrite, the “Monoethanolamine” (MEA) presented as a potential allergen.”
Finally, surfactants. It says: “Known to be irritants, they destroy the skin’s hydrolipidic barrier and thus strip it. A shower gel that contains sulfates is therefore strongly discouraged for those with sensitive skin.”