Hypoallergenic skin products, makeup and cosmetic creams are supposedly less harsh than their conventional makeup counterparts and safer for your skin care. But it’s really the skin care ingredients that matter most when it comes to what is good for your skin. I looked into hypoallergenic products and hypoallergenic cosmetics and here is what I found out

Guess what? There are no standards for determining whether a makeup or skin product is hypoallergenic and it is left up to the cosmetics maker to decide if a particular beauty product is labeled as hypoallergenic

It turns out the FDA has no set standard for determining if a product is hypoallergenic or not. In fact, it is left totally up to the makeup or cosmetics brand to determine if they want to use that labeling. In other words, it is arbitrary. They can call a cream a hypoallergenic skin cream and they can call skin products hypallergenic skin products because they want to. Typically if they think their product will be non-irritating for most skin types they might decide to call it hypoallergenic. A company can pretty much randomly decide whether to call something hypoallergenic or not. Perhaps they have a product that has had few adverse reactions amongst consumers so they decide to label it as hypoallergenic as a marketing tactic. Or maybe they believe that they have very safe ingredients that don’t usually cause adverse reactions to sensitive skin. So they decide, let’s categorize it as hypoallergenic for sensitive skin. The fact is that it is totally up to the makeup line to classify the particular cosmetic and there is not scientific studies that show that certain classes of products cause fewer adverse reactions than others on the basis of being labeled hypoallergenic or not. The term hypoallergenic with respect to beauty products has very little meaning and is used primarily as a marketing tool.

Check the ingredient list of the makeup or cosmetics because it really is a specific substance, such as fragrance, that a consumer can be allergic to or have problems with

Let’s say a cosmetic skin care line uses all natural ingredients and the company decides that those ingredients are safe and known to cause few negative skin reactions so they label the skin care line as hypo-allergenic. That makes sense I guess, because they are conveying that this line has the safe high quality ingredients. So they call them natural beauty products. But the fact of the matter is that harsh ingredients in cosmetic products have been identified through decades of sales and for the most part these ingredients are not even used in the manufacturing process anymore.

That being said, some women have skin sensitivity to certain specific ingredients. This is why reading the ingredient list in your makeup or skin cream, anti wrinkle or tanning cream, or hair shampoo and conditioner is the most important thing. If you find that a certain product is giving you problems record the ingredients. That way you might be able to identify additives that give you a problem and avoid buying beauty products that have those in them. Once you find a skin cream or makeup that agrees with you, is low priced and does what you want it to do, stick with it. You can also check those ingredients off as ones that you have no adverse skin reaction from.

Ingredients in makeup and cosmetics known to cause skin reactions in some women

I know for a fact (since I have sensitive skin lol) that one of the common culprits that cause problems for women are the ingredients in perfumes and sunscreens. Some women are allergic to certain fragrances and others to ingredients in the sun screens. Sun screens are a big culprit because if you have already burned skin and put something on that irritates it further with sun exposure, then you have a big problem such as a rash or welts. Try different sun screens and find one that is strong, gives good coverage and does not irritate your skin when in the sun or after. If a perfume or fragrance bothers you make not of that and don’t buy products with that fragrance in it. It you’re allergic to coconut don’t buy coconut cream.

Hair dyes are harsh by their nature and tetrabromofluorescein in the dyes can cause reactions. Ingredients in bleaching creams like hydroquinone can cause a reaction. Any cream that causes peeling such as Retin-A can cause irritation to sensitive skin. All the resins and acrylates in nail polish can cause sensitivity. After all, nail polish is like formaldehyde lol. Sunscreen preparations can really irritate, there is an ingredient called digalloy trioleate that people get reaction to but the biggest thing is irritating ingredients in skin creams put over already sun burned skin can further irritate it. A problematic sun cream ingredient can also cause a chemical reaction when hit with the suns rays. Perfumes and perfume smells added to beauty products like makeup and creams for skin are notorious for causing reactions also. Some women like fragrance free beauty products for that very reason.

Some women are just allergic to certain cosmetic products. For instance, waxy and fatty cocoa butter can irritate. Metallics in eye shadows or eyeliner can irritate the eye area. Even preservatives put into water based makeup can irritate. I’ll give an example that I really can’t use Cover Girl liquid foundation. It really irritates my skin and has a fragrance smell to it which may be the culprit or maybe it’s just a preservative that is used in that particular product. I also can’t use Oil of Olay products, which smell fragrant. With any woman there are going to be certain products and product lines that don’t agree with her skin. A beauty product that causes a skin reaction for one women may be perfectly safe for another cosmetic.

Natural makeup is really no safer per se than conventional makeup, here is why

Natural makeup has the implicit implication that it’s natural ingredients are not going to irritate the skin. If you are allergic to specific preservatives, and the natural makeup does not have the preservative, then this can be true I guess. But in general natural makeup is no safer than conventional makeup. One could even argue that conventional makeup is safer because something like Max Factor has preservatives but everyone has been using Max Factor for decades so it’s sort of pretty safe. Some specialty all natural makeup may not have even been tested as thoroughly as stuff from the conventional cosmetics sold at drugstores world wide.

If you have an allergy to a plant or an animal, which is not all that uncommon, then natural extracts from it can cause a skin reaction. You can be allergic to natural ingredients just as easily as you can be allergic to unnatural ingredients. Peanuts are natural and people are still allergic to them. Just because a natural cosmetic or makeup has some herbal preparations in it does not make it automatically safe for your skin. You could be allergic to aloe-vera which is supposed to soothe skin! Poisen Ivy is a plant but plenty of women are allergic to it! Have you ever heard of lanolin? It’s an ingredient in moisturizers and it is extracted from sheep’s wool. Some women are allergic to lanolin. The biggest abusers of the hypoallergic term are the mineral makeups. They always claim how these natural mineral makeups are better for the skin but if you are allergic to the mineral it may not be the case. I do like mineral makeup however a product like Bare Minerals is really no more or less hypoallergenic than non mineral makeup.

If use of a particular cosmetic, hair product, suntan or skin cream gives you a rash or itchy skin, avoid it. If the area becomes more red and blistered or swollen or you get hives or welts from it, you better get your skin checked out. Sometimes you might need to take some medication such as Benadryl or Calamine to reduce inflammation and itching from an allergic reaction so check with your doctor.

Hypoallergenic means less than normal. And the term is overused and pretty much abused by cosmetics brands since there are not rules or assurance other than a manufacturer decision to label a cosmetic as such. Essentially there is no such thing as hypoallergenic makeup. It really is no different than other makeup claims like safe for sensitive skin, allergy tested, non-irritating, dermatologist tested, and so forth. There is no guarantee and the best prevention for allergic skin reactions is to track ingredients of beauty cosmetic products that work for you and products that don’t. Ingredients are required to be displayed on cosmetics jars, you just need your 3.0 magnification strength reading classes in order to see the ingredient list. Good luck with that.