Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Skin What’s causing this skin redness?

  • What’s causing this skin redness?

    Posted by dell on January 12, 2022 at 3:15 am

    Please help me understand which ingredient(s) might have caused this redness  :/

    I bought one cream base from a local OEM manufacturer and for the first few days it worked well moisturising my eczema hand. After that it became red, sometimes itchy and sometimes not, and sometimes with itchy blisters too.

    The ingredients: 

    Purified water, Petrolatum, Glycerine, Cetearyl Alcohol, PEG-100 Stearate, Mineral Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, Propylene Glycol, Ceteareth-20, Glyceryl Stearate, Carbomer, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerine, Triethanolamine.

    After complaining, she changed it to natural cream base but this one also gave me redness and itchiness but mild compared to the above.

    The ingredients:

    Purified water, Glycerine, Sorbitol, Olive Emulsifier, Pure Beeswax, Shea Butter Unrefined, Olive Wax, MCT Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Preservative.

    *Both creams give better moisturising effect than other commercial creams that I have tried like cetaphil & cerave


    dell replied 2 years, 11 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Syl

    Member
    January 12, 2022 at 5:41 am

    The company that makes that natural cream is not listing its ingredients according to FDA labeling regulation. What is a natural preservative? Is it phenoxyethanol Ethylhexylglycerine? 
    As a person who suffers from eczema, I would recommend an over the counter hydrocortisone cream to reduce the discomfort at this point, and I hope you find a hand cream that does not cause blisters. It is best to select a product that list all ingredients according to INCI regulation.

  • Abdullah

    Member
    January 12, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    as Sil said, what is natural preservative?

    I made a lotion with phenoxyethanol and caprylyl Glycol which is like this preservative blend 9:1. I was after some time it was producing gas. Perry said yeast contamination can produce gas so i added 0.1% caprylhydroxamic acid to see what happens and now it doesn’t produce gas. So maybe these products are also contaminated. The don’t have chelating agent and citric acid so the pH may also be high.

    For eczema, any product with petrolatum and glycerin as first two ingredients after water is a good product. 

  • dell

    Member
    January 13, 2022 at 4:02 am

    I asked the manufacturer, they use Pentylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol & Ethylhexylglycerin for natural preservative.
     
    Will ask about chelating agent & citric acid  :)

  • Mayday

    Member
    January 13, 2022 at 6:34 am

    Does anyone have bad experiences with ethylhexylglycerin and know it to be the cause? There’s another product I know about that caused dermatitis and I suspect it was that ingredient.

  • Syl

    Member
    January 13, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    All approved ingredients are safe to use, but some can cause problems in a small percentage of people. We are complex living organisms; think of peanut allergy and apply this concept to cosmetic ingredients. When it comes to preservatives they are a challenge, but they make our beauty product safe. 

  • dell

    Member
    January 19, 2022 at 4:03 am

    Abdullah said:

    as Sil said, what is natural preservative?

    I made a lotion with phenoxyethanol and caprylyl Glycol which is like this preservative blend 9:1. I was after some time it was producing gas. Perry said yeast contamination can produce gas so i added 0.1% caprylhydroxamic acid to see what happens and now it doesn’t produce gas. So maybe these products are also contaminated. The don’t have chelating agent and citric acid so the pH may also be high.

    For eczema, any product with petrolatum and glycerin as first two ingredients after water is a good product. 

    This is what she said regarding the use of  citric acid & chelating agent “Usually we don’t use EDTA in cream. Triethanolamine used to adjust pH for (non natural) cream based. Natural cream based not required any pH adjuster (because it’s already between 5-6)..”

    What do you think?

Log in to reply.

Chemists Corner