Alcohol In Skincare

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What You Need To Avoid

Alcohol is a surprisingly common ingredient in skincare. Alcohols are very drying ingredients that can damage your skin, but confusingly, not every ingredient with the word alcohol in it is actually bad for your skin. In fact, fatty alcohols are very moisturizing and are beneficial to your skin. So how can you tell the difference and aviod the bad ones? Let's take a closer look.

Types Of Alcohols In Skincare

There are two main types of alcohols in skincare; fatty alcohols and drying alcohols.

Drying alcohols are volatile evaporative solvents, like isopropyl alcohol, that can be very irritating to the skin. They will strip away the skins natural oils causing damage to the skins barrier, resulting in dry and dehydarate skin. This stripping action can lead to your skin over producing oils resulting in shiny oily skin. This damage over time can lead to an increase in blemishes and enlarged pores.

Fatty alcohols are long chain molecules that trap and hold water. They are most often derived from natural oils, so are generally vegan. They are used as emulsifyiers, meaning that they hold the ingredients of creams and lotions together and provide a rich hydrating texture.

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Drying Alcohols To Avoid

There are many different types of drying alcohols and there are many different ways that they can appear on ingredient lists. Here are some of the ways you might see them show up.

• Isopropyl Alcohol

• Ethanol

• Denatured Alcohol

• SD Alcohol 40

• Benzyl Alcohol

All of these ingredients are evaporative solvents that will have a dehydrating effect on the skin. They are most commonly used in cleansers, toners, and gel moisturizers, often to give a cooling effect and strip away oils.

What Are Fatty Alcohols?

These are good alcohols to see on your ingredients list. Fatty alcohols are long chain molecules that trap and hold water and are therefore highly moisturizing.

• Cetearyl Alcohol

• Cetyl Alcohol

• Stearyl Alcohol

• Isostearyl Alcohol

• Decyl Alcohol

These ingredients are very common in creams and lotions and give the product a rich, creamy texture.

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Why Brands Still Use Drying Alcohols

Drying alcohols are a short cut for formulators in skincare. They are a way to make a product feel like it is working instantly, even though it is often causing long term damage.

For example they often show up in products for oily skin due to their ability to strip away oils. This will give oily skin an immediate, desirable matte finish. Unfortunately, in the long term this stripping action can actually lead to the skin over producing oil and can damage your skins barrier.

They also give a light, refreshing feel, making the product feel like it's weightless and working instantly, when really it is just drying out your skin.

One of the craziest places that drying alcohols show up is in soothing gels for sunburns. They give the gel it's "cooling effect", but this cooling effect comes from the alcohol evaporating and drying out your skin. Which is the last thing your need when treating a sunburn.

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What Does Alcohol Free Mean?

It's getting more and more popular for products to be advertised as alcohol free but since there are multiple types of alcohols, some of which are good for the skin, what does this actually mean? When a product is labeled as alcohol free this means it is free of evaporative, drying alcohols and may still contain good, fatty alcohols. This is a great thing to look for in skincare given the damage that drying alcohols can cause to your clients skin.

All the products we provide are considered alcohol free. We don't believe in taking the damaging short cuts that these types of alcohols provide. We would rather provide products that will give your clients the effects they desire in a clean, sustainable way.

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