Majority of skincare brands the world over use ingredients that they deem as safe. Consumers trust them and purchase these products and apply them onto their skin little knowing the ill effects it could cause on their skin.
If I didn’t have over sensitive problem skin I would also, probably be applying these products not worrying about the ingredients.
I’ve been having a massive amount of trouble finding a safe moisturiser for myself nowadays. So I decided to make more people aware of the products on their face.
Places like Europe have very strict laws as to what they allow in their products and what products are allowed to be sold in their country. And US also has similar laws although it isn’t half as strict as Europe. But what about places like India and the rest of Asia where no nation cares about it’s people?
Almost no skincare brands in India list their ingredients and no one seems to care. I’ve decided to start a skincare series talking about different ingredients and their ill effects.
Sodium Hydroxide. This is a product that is found in most skincare companies in India, I won’t name names since you all can very well read ingredient lists. If it doesn’t give you an ingredient list, don’t buy it.
This is a paragraph taken from this site here.
What happens when sodium hydroxide solutions comes into contact with my skin?
Sodium hydroxide is extremely corrosive and is capable of causing severe burns with deep ulceration and permanent scarring. It can penetrate to deeper layers of skin and corrosion will continue until removed. The severity of injury depends on the concentration of the solution and the duration of exposure. Burns may not be immediately painful; onset of pain may be delayed minutes to hours. Several human studies and case reports describe the corrosive effects of sodium hydroxide. A 4% solution of sodium hydroxide, applied to a volunteer’s arm for 15 to 180 minutes, caused damage which progressed from destruction of cells of the hard outer layer of the skin within 15 minutes to total destruction of all layers of the skin in 60 minutes. Solutions as weak as 0.12% have damaged healthy skin within 1 hour. Sodium hydroxide dissolved the hair and caused reversible baldness and scalp burns when a concentrated solution (pH = 13.5) dripped onto a worker’s head and treatment was delayed for several hours.
Sodium Hydroxide is also known as Caustic Soda/Lye. Many companies use it because what it does is it gives a bleaching effect (considering that sodium hydroxide is an ingredient that is found in floor cleaners and over cleaners to remove stubborn stains, i think you can get my point) So what it does it is gives oily skin a matte effect and makes it look bright and non oily, it also makes the skin look fair. But what it is probably doing is given in the above paragraph.
I hope this helped some of you. I have decided to be more careful with my skincare products after reading some of the most dangerous products that are there. I have also decided to do a cosmetology course dealing with skin so that I can learn for myself in greater detail what is and isn’t good for skin and what companies i can and cannot trust.
TA
Kofykat
