The beauty industry has come under lots of scrutiny over the past few decades, mainly because of all the complaints that consumers have been leaving on their review comments and posts when trying out new products. This could be due to many reasons, either the ingredients inside of the products are harmful or the consumers are using the wrong types of products for their skin types.
Whatever the reason behind liking or disliking a product, wisdom is to be acquired in knowing what’s in that face cream your putting on your cheeks every night or that hand sanitizer your applying to the palms of your hands every time you touch something.
It is no surprise that the sales of hand sanitizers have gone up tremendously since the emergency of the COIVD-19 virus that has hit the world. One of the recommended ways to keep hands clean and sort-of germ-free, by the US government and health departments, was to use this product every couple of hours on your hands, to kill or at least minimize the presence of certain viruses.
Does Sanitizer work and How?
So, let’s look at how this works. According to the University of Toronto’s Professor James Scott, after looking at the research that has come out through the public and clinical tests, the conclusion is that it does work in reducing the number of bacteria on your skin, and sometimes depending on the one you use, even more so than using soap and water on your hands.
The added benefit is that it seems to be less damaging to the skin as well. Some of the consumer-brand soaps sold at stores are not made to clean your hands-off dirt and grime but rather filled with perfumes and fragrances to make your hands smell nice, that’s all.
When skin dries out due to overuse of washing it with soap and water, according to the professor, it is prone to be exposed to bacteria. Although it is a point to note that hand sanitizer does not necessarily replace soap, and you must wash your hands the first chance you get. The universities website has more on this which you can further read here
How it works, is by killing certain cells on the human skin, these are known as ‘microbial cells’, and because most liquids are supposed to have up to 70% alcohol in them, as by law, to make them efficient, this concentrated rubbing alcohol does the trick of killing the bacteria. Of course, the stronger the alcohol content in the product the more effective it is, for instance, pure alcohol.
What is Your Bottle?
So, the question remains, do you know what’s in your bottle of hand sanitizer? We take a brief look at this. In most liquids of this sort, the main ingredients as mentioned above need to be alcohol, however, besides this, some other additives are harmful to your skin, and you, as a consumer should be made aware of when buying them.
This is so important in fact, that the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) updates its website continuously to inform consumers of these ingredients that are not meant to be used: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates…consumers-should-not-use
Let’s look at a list of the harmful ones:
Triclosan: Does not have enough power to kill germs and should not be included.
Fragrances: Should not be included as they don’t do much for killing germs or bacteria of any kind and can be harmful to the skin causing cancers.
Parabens: Commonly used in cosmetics, and even some foods, can cause some types of skin cancers and irritations.
SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulphate): Help soaps form and are also associated with health risks and skin and lung irritations.
What Ingredients Are Safe?
Having known what’s bad for you, let’s add a positive spin on things and list what you should be using instead. Sanitizers with these ingredients are safe:
Ethanol: Not less than 94.9% is safe to use.
Glycerin: This is a harmless additive and also a necessary one.
Sterile Water Is water so it’s safe.
Essential Oils: This a good type of fragrance, it’s natural and has no harmful chemicals in it, ethical companies such as those that have the BeMoxe ingredients in them, are safe to use as they are in the category of non-synthetic fragrance oils from a natural derivative.
With this list of ingredients, do’s and don’ts we hope you’re off to a safe and clean journey!
Guest blog-
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