Ingredient Focus on Phenoxyethanol

It is important when you are shopping, to know what the ingredients are in your cosmetics and skin care products. That is why we want to help and educate our customers. We would like to tell you what the ingredients are in your cosmetics and beauty products. The more you know about what you are putting on your face and body, the better. So today's ingredient focus on phenoxyethanol will bring some light to your eyes. 

What is Phenoxyethanol?

 In the world of cosmetics and skin care, preservatives are often needed so that the items you put on your skin, have a much longer shelf life. There are very low amounts of phenoxyetanol because it is actually more effective when it is used in smaller amounts. There is currently a lot of controversy about this ingredient. There has been a lot of research done on it, but the types of research being done, do not relate to the world of cosmetics and only focus on the highly, concentrated doses, which are not used in cosmetics. It is 100% safe to use and it has been purified before it is used in products.

When used at 100% concentration, there are many warnings about using phenoxyethanol. The amount generally used in cosmetics is 1% or less. A good comparison would be if you drink a sip of tequila as opposed to drinking the whole bottle in one sitting. Clearly, one is going to be more dangerous. Research shows that sensitivity to it is rare. Even with natural preservatives, people have shown skin sensitivity to them. It just depends on what type of skin you have and how sensitive it truly is. Preservatives are generally used to kill off bacteria and fungus so it can have some power to it that can cause sensitivity. After all, you don't want fungus in your make up, do you? 

What is very interesting about this preservative is that it actually occurs naturally in green tea. This is another reason that we think it is very safe to use. Millions of people drink green tea daily and they seem to be doing just fine! 

There are multiple products that contain phenoxyethanol such as moisturizers, eye shadow, mascara, concealer, hand cream, hand sanitizer, soaps, foundation, sunscreen, lip gloss, blush, toothpaste, and shaving cream just to name a few. 

Stay tuned to our blogs to catch up with different ingredient myths and other myths of skincare.