Not All Alcohols Are Bad.

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Jul 23, 2014

Shelley W.

I'm big about knowing what's in the products I'm curious about and wish to buy because there are several ingredients that are irritating to my skin. So often we hear about alcohol being bad for the skin but not all alcohol's are created equal.

The Good Guy's:

cetyl, cetearyl, cetyl 20, stearyl alcohol

These are usually derived from coconut oil and are labeled as fatty alcohols. They fill in as hydrators and emulsifiers to create that creamy texture that we all appreciate. They maintain long chains when it comes to the chemistry aspect.

The Bad Guy's:

sd alcohol, sd alcohol 40, isopropyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, denatured alcohol (alcohol denat), methanol

The bad guy's maintain a short chain so they will dry out the skin since they evaporate fairly quickly. Interesting to note that if they sit high up on the ingredients list expect drying of the skin but if they are found at the bottom or dead last they were probably put in place as degreasing agent to help with formulating of the given product.

Now of course if you are allergic to coconut oil you might want to avoid the good guy's simply because they are derived from coconuts but for the most part they don't maintain the evil wrap that the bad guy's maintain.

This also transfers over to haircare products as well.

The details I grabbed from reading lab notes from my husband's notepad while he was doing his dermatology residency so if I managed to leave out an alcohol please forgive me as I had a hard time reading his chicken scratch handwriting. Hope this was helpful for some of you.

Jul 23, 2014

Phylicia V.

Great to know. following this. thank you for this info.

Jul 23, 2014

Gypsy S.

Thank you Shelley☺️ I actually had a question about this today and you totally answered it👍

Jul 23, 2014

Shelley W.

You're welcome ladies.

Jul 23, 2014

Grace T.

Good info, thanks

Jul 23, 2014

Netty A.

I appreciate this info!

Jul 23, 2014

Aide N.

Thank you Shelly, for taking the time to educate us.. much appreciated.

Jul 23, 2014

Diana T.

I think I have found my skin to be sensitive to certain alcohols (like stearyl) but not so much to others (denatured) so this is very interesting info Shelley! Thnx for posting!

Jul 23, 2014

Diana T.

Sorry I meant cetearyl not sure why but whenever a product has this it breaks me out - even it only ranks as a 2 for acne on the cosdna scale

Jul 23, 2014

Diana T.

That and stearic acid.

Jul 23, 2014

Shelley W.

Ouch Diana!! And a lot of products on the market contain stearic acid and cetearyl. Do you encounter irritation with haircare products that contain those two?

Jul 23, 2014

Diana T.

Hair is fine it's just for some reason my acne on my face acts up with these 2 ingredients and yeah tell me about it girl there are only certain brands that don't use them and that is pretty much all I can use :T.

Jul 23, 2014

Mistreece L.

Nice read...thanks.

Jul 23, 2014

Ashley F.

Awesome info! Thanks

Jul 24, 2014

Traci L.

LOVE THIS THREAD