What Ingredients Really Matter In Your Skincare Products?

"I’ve read that it’s better to use 'all natural' products to treat acne because there are no chemicals.  Is it better to use all natural products or is it all hype?"

As an Esthetician who deals exclusively with acne and sensitivity, I'm asked this question a lot. You might think the answer is quite simple, but it really isn't. The problem is that acne cannot always be effectively addressed by ingredients that are typical of "all natural" skin care lines. In fact there are some "all natural" ingredients that can be horribly aggravating to acne. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that not everything natural is good for acne and redness, and not everything with a chemical sounding name is bad.

For instance, the worst ingredient for acne is cocoa butter. It clogs pores like crazy! Almond oil is mildly clogging, and believe it or not, coconut oil can be a total disaster for acne skin, clogging pores and dehydrating skin at the same time!  If you buy a handcrafted lotion with any of these ingredients believing that it can't be bad because it's "all natural," you could end up with a real mess on your hands.

On the other hand, some of the best anti-inflammatory ingredients for redness and blotchiness are from nature - aloe, green tea, chamomile, allentoin (from comfrey) and azulene are mainstays in the skin care world and have no synthetic equivalents.

Or, take chemical sounding names. I've seen natural lines use ingredients like Isopropyl Palmitate, a very pore-clogging ingredient, because it's derived from palm oil. It may be naturally derived, but it actually makes acne much worse.

Or how about Sodium Hyaluronate. Sounds synthetic? It's not. Your skin makes a chemical called Hyaluronic Acid, but in lesser and lesser amounts as you grow older.  At any age, it's one of the most important components of an acne regimen, because it helps hydrate the skin so it can become more pliable, like it was when it was younger, and not hold onto its oil so much.  

Natural Hyaluronic Acid, as an ingredient in hydrating skincare, used to be derived from rooster combs, at $1,000 a gallon!  As it is now created in laboratories, it has the name Sodium Hyaluronate, and is an example of an ingredient known as “Bio-Identical,” a term that means the natural ingredient and the lab-derived ingredient are chemically exactly the same.  

Often the choice between the two is economic, but lab-derived ingredients also have the advantage of being environmentally or humanely responsible.  They really do exactly the same things and are chemically the same.  So, yes, lab-derived ingredients are technically synthetic – but which would you rather have - an ingredient taken from rooster combs, or an exact chemical copy?

The adage "You should only use products with ingredients whose names you can pronounce." is simply something I do not believe in at all. There are just too many laboratory derived, healthy ingredients that acne and sensitivity benefit greatly from that would be unnecessarily missed out on just because their names are long. It doesn't make sense.

There are two very important things to consider when it comes to treating acne and redness here:

1)  Tea tree and lavender may be antibacterial, but will never ever be as effective as Benzoyl Peroxide when it comes to flushing out pores and keeping acne bacteria from proliferating and making a mess. Depending on the severity of your acne, it may not be possible to stay entirely natural. On the other hand, Salicylic Acid, which comes from wintergreen and/or willow bark, is one of the best acne medicines around, and even takes care of redness. On the other other hand, Sal Acid doesn't adequately penetrate the skin unless it has SD Alcohol as a vehicle. Are you getting the picture? 

2)  Always remember that when it comes to redness and sensitivity, natural fragrance can be worse than artificial! In fact, a product that has too many botanicals would be something to stay away from. Sensitive skin tends to come with  quite a few allergies, even when they may be mild enough to cause redness you may have attributed to something else. The most important part of a good regimen for sensitive skin is the inclusion of  anti-inflammatories. Aloe, sea whip (you might see "pseudopterogorgia elisabethea extract" on the label), green tea and zinc oxide are what you want to look for.

I've seen so many organic or “all natural” lines make egregious mistakes when it comes to acne and sensitivity, when a label says a product is meant for acneic or sensitive skin, the knowledge of the formulator and skincare company can be suspect. If you still need guidance on what to use, you can't go wrong visiting a skincare salon or website that shares your vision. At least then you wouldn't be flying blind with trial and error on a skin type that can be one of the most difficult to deal with.

Here's a short list of what ingredients to avoid if your skin is oily with acne and redness:

• Coconut Oil
• Cocoa Butter
• Avocado Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Shea Butter (it can be clogging if it's processed wrong, plus it's too rich for oily skin)
• More than four or five botanicals in a product
• Isopropyl Myristate
• Isopropyl Palmitate
• Ethelhexyl Palmitate
• Wrong type or formulation of Vitamin C - a product could be useless if it just says "Vitamin C". If it’s coupled with an acid to stabilize it, it’ll be extremely irritating - I've seen lists on all-natural products with just "vitamin C" on the label; back on the shelf it went.  Look for Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, or Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, which are the most gentle and most stable types.
• Vitamin E if it doesn't give what type. Just plain Vitamin E or "Tocopherol" alone can be irritating and do nothing for the skin - it has to be formulated right.  L-Tocopherol or Tocopheral Acetate are what you should look for.

There are almost 100 ingredients that I look for when I peruse through an ingredient list on a product, but there's more to this than just locating questionable ingredients - there can be several mildly pore clogging substances in a product which can test non-clogging when in a formula all together with other ingredients.  I look at where on the list something is placed, what else is in the formula that might make things worse or ok, and I come across brand new ingredients all the time that I have to learn about.  

So, always feel free to check with me - when you are a full participant in my Eval by Email® Adult Acne Clearing Program, you can send in full ingredient lists for potential makeup, haircare, and body care, so you no longer have to guess or fly blind anytime.  With this program, you have my full attention.

Have you wondered about this issue and have now found clarity, or had a feeling this was true but didn't know how to articulate it?  Please share this post !