The Truth About Emulsifiers in Skin Care Products
Emulsifiers are substances used to keep a cream or liquid from breaking down. They’re commonly added to food and the products we use on our skin.
And that may be a problem according to IAC.
"Emulsifiers have been found to be higher irritants than fragrance or preservatives because they are proving to cause a modification of the stratum corneum multilamellar lipid structure. Despite this, their use is largely unregulated and is considered an easy and inexpensive way of combining the oil and water phases of an emulsion. Note that cost is the prime directive."
There's more:
"The lasting emulsifying capacity of the emulsifiers penetrated into the skin causes an increased transport of skin-own protective substances such as the multilamellar lipids out of the skin especially when the skin comes in contact with water. This is called the ‘wash out’ effect."
What that means is that you're skin's natural barrier is compromised so harmful substances can to penetrate the skin.
As you might guess, we are not keen on these kinds of additives. Instead we use an emulsifier-free cold processing' system to avoid old-fashioned emulsifying agents when formulating our skin care range. I’ll cover this in more depth in a future post.