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  1. #1

    Default Alcohol denat. - dehydrated skin

    Hey, guys! Iīm new on this forum and I have a question. I am 25 years old. After this summer I noticed tiny lines first on my shoulders, then around my knees and on my stomach. I also have tiny lines on my forehead. First I thought it was premature aging, but then I started researching more. I did have a lot of stress in the last couple of years, but I donīt drink, I donīt smoke, I never did any drugs. I eat healthy and exercise. I also donīt sunbathe a lot (cause my skin is very white and sensitive), so I thought it couldnīt be premature aging. Then I researched more and found out that Alcohol denat. is very drying for our skin. So, I took a look at the products I use and I realized that the sunscreen Iīve been using the whole summer has Alcohol denat. as a second ingredient! Also, the organic body peeling I was using had Alcohol in it as a second ingredient! Iīm drinking a lot of water now and applyiing moisturizer, will that help? Will those lines dissapear? Why do so many products have Alcohol as an ingredient. Evan when I was searching for a moisturizer, most of them had Alcohol denat. as one of the first 5 ingredients! Itīs kind of ironic that you use sunscreen to prevent wrinkles, but in fact the sunscreen is causing you wrinkles. :/

  2. #2
    pepsimax's Avatar
    **Nikki** Female

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    Hello Tanya and welcome to Dermatalk.You pose a very interesting question regarding alcohol in skin care products and one that confuses a lot of people, including me.
    I couldn't answer your question in full as I know ingredients can be written differently so cause confusion but I found something that should help you.
    In response to sunscreen preventing wrinkles this isn't the case. Sunscreen prevents harmful rays getting to your skin. Excess unprotected exposure to the sun not only causes your skin to lose its natural moisture which results in premature aging, but more serious things like skin cancer. Sunscreen is important (even more so if you are fair skin) in moderately warm to very hot temperatures even on overcast days.

    "I always recommend that sensitive skin sufferers check ingredient lists and give beauty products containing alcohol a wide berth.
    Ethyl alcohols dry the skin, cause irritation, trigger Rosacea flare-ups and prevent the absorption of Vitamin A – the lack of which promotes premature ageing.
    These drying alcohols are listed as ‘alcohol denat.’, ‘ethanol’ or ‘ethyl alcohol’.
    Some companies market alcohol as a “skin balancer” – if you have oily skin, then it will dry it out. There are better ways to rebalance your skin!
    This is a cynical marketing gloss for the true reasons for including alcohol – it is used as a “natural” preservative in organic products, as well as a fixing agent for fragrances.
    But it only works in high concentrations – for alcohol to work as a preservative in skin creams, it must be used in concentrations of up to 20%, which is why you see it high up the ingredients list.
    But…Pai uses a form of alcohol in its products – is it also drying and a skin irritant?
    No. Not all alcohols are created equal. They can take various forms, serve different purposes and not all are bad for the skin.
    There is a class of wax alcohols such as cetearyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol.
    These are referred to as ‘fatty alcohols’ and are commonly used as an emulsifier or thickener in creams. They actually have a non-drying moisturising effect on the skin.
    These alcohols are usually naturally derived from vegetable sources such as coconut and are well tolerated by sensitive skin sufferers.
    Drying alcohols carry a ‘moderate’ hazard rating of 5-6 on the Cosmetic Safety Database while fatty alcohols have a ‘low’ hazard rating of 0-1.
    So, know your alcohols – we at Pai do use Ethly Alcohols but we use them to clean and disinfect our work surfaces. Which just about says it all.

    Sarah’s Organic Skin Care Blog – http://blog.paiskincare.com"

  3. #3
    pepsimax's Avatar
    **Nikki** Female

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    Sorry as for what has happened to your skin. If you introduce natural products into your routine the damage will reverse and in time you will help slow down the onset of 'aged' skin.
    Everyone has their own favourite which you can see if you look through past threads but my favourite is unrefined shea butter (not in commercial products) combines with extra virgin coconut oil. I buy both of these reasonably from ebay.

  4. #4

    Default

    So sunscreen doesnīt prevent wrinkes at all? But why do dermatologists say it does? Thanks for your explanation So, shea butter and coconut oil can help with it? Great I apply olive oil and it seems to work good on my face, but my hands seem as if they are not absorbing it at all (?) I heard that alcohol can also prevent the absorbtion of vitamin A.....really horrible...Iīm going to run away from it from now on

  5. #5
    vencasand's Avatar
    **Brenda** Female

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    sunscreen helps prevent skin cancer. some alcohols are needed to dissolve the active ingredients in a product. usually when the alcohols are heated they evaporate and no longer in the mixture. i am not sure about it being the second ingredient. mostly when alcohols are used to disolve active powders they are listed last. you should use sunscreen to prevent aging and to keep your skin healthy. and in preventing your skin from being over exposed to the suns rays it can certainly help prevent some wrinkling.

  6. #6
    pepsimax's Avatar
    **Nikki** Female

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    Thank you Brenda. I knew alcohol was used in some way but I couldn't answer for sure. As it turns out I educated myself looking for the answer.

    Tanya do you live in a moderately warm/hot climate? If you do then using sunscreen daily on exposed areas (especially forehead, nose, shoulders and tops of feet) is a must if you will be in the sun for around 30 mins or more at a time. Get in the habit of using sunscreen, when needed, along with your usual routine and it will go a long way to helping prevent premature aging along with skin cancer.

  7. #7

    **Barbara** Female

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    So, it is very strange that sunscreens use denat. alcohol as one of their primary ingredients. If you look at spray on sunscreens, alcohol is one of the top ingredients. The reason sunscreens use alcohol is so that the product will dry quickly on the skin, but it also dries out the skin. So, stay away from sunscreens that use alcohol as a main ingredient. Another thing to look for that is very important is to look for a product that has Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide. I have found that most sunscreens do address UVB rays, that is the SPF number on the tube. BUT, that says nothing about how the sunscreen protects from UVA rays, which are the ones that cause aging and skin cancer. The most important thing to look for when choosing a sunscreen is to look for either Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide as they are the only ingredients that create a physical block, which is what one needs to protect from UVA rays. A sunscreen can have an SPF of 50, and still not protect from UVB rays. So many people rely on the SPF numbers, expecting that this is an indication of the effectiveness of the product. It is NOT. These numbers are like the police having a town meeting and telling people that to protect their houses, they should lock the front door, but not worry about the back door. Really? That is very misleading and can actually hurt the consumer.
    So, stay away from sunscreens that use alcohol as a amin ingredient and ALWAYS look for either Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide for full spectrum protection from the sun.


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