Just like moisturising cream, toothpaste, and deodorant, shower gels are staple products in our bathrooms. They provide us with a feeling of cleanliness and freshness during our showers. However, it's not always easy to choose the right shower gel. It's important to pay particular attention to their composition. Indeed, potentially containing allergenic ingredients, some shower gels can be irritating. Let's therefore focus on the components to avoid in a shower gel.
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Components to avoid in a shower gel.
Summary
- Choosing a shower gel: carefully read the list of ingredients
- Problematic and controversial substances to avoid in a shower gel
Published December 8, 2021,
updated on August 2, 2024,
by
Stéphanie, PhD, Doctorate in Life and Health Sciences
—
4 min read
Choosing a shower gel: carefully read the list of ingredients.
Directly visible on the packaging, the INCI list enumerates the components present in a cosmetic product ranked by order of quantitative presence, thus allowing greater transparency towards the consumer but also better identification of problematic ingredients. Therefore, the first 5 to 8 components listed on the INCI list predominantly make up the product.
Shower gels are typically composed of around 70% water (INCI: "Aqua"), followed by approximately 20% of surfactants which form the cleansing base of the product and the remainder of ancillary components (pH adjusters, preservatives, gelling agents, etc...). However, for shower gels, the most important aspect is to choose the right cleansing base. Indeed, the chosen surfactants can either be irritating/allergenic and/or problematic for the environment or health, or very gentle and well tolerated by all skin types.
Problematic and controversial substances to avoid in a shower gel.
A shower gel is a cleansing product used daily to remove dirt present on the skin's surface. However, to fulfil this role, some of them can prove to be irritating and allergenic to the point of drying out the skin. Indeed, certain body cleansing gels may contain additives that can be harsh and sensitising for the epidermis, especially if you have sensitive skin. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid the following components according to their categories:
Antibacterial preservatives: Some preservatives can be particularly irritating and allergenic, even harmful to health. However, they are essential in the composition to maintain the quality of the shower gel and ensure consumer safety by inhibiting the proliferation of microorganisms (composed of about 70% water). Among them, we can mention the phenoxyethanol considered harmful to health, and even more so in children, as it is suspected to be an endocrine disruptor, the paraben derivatives recognisable by the suffix -paraben at the end of the name (e.g.: "Propylparaben", "Butylparaben", "Isopropylparaben", etc...), or even the methylchloroisothiazolinone and the methylisothiazolinone for their high allergenic potential that even their maximum concentration in cosmetic products has been reduced.
pH Regulators: These components are used to stabilise the pH of cosmetics. Among the problematic substances, we can mention certain alkanolamines such as the "Triethanolamine" (TEA), which, with a very low risk, can form nitrosamines known to be carcinogenic in the presence of nitrite, the "Monoethanolamine" (MEA) presented as a potential allergen, etc...
Surfactants: This category of components often appears at the top of the INCI list of cleansing products such as shower gels. Indeed, these substances are foaming agents that are necessary to lift dirt and facilitate their removal by trapping them. The most well-known and commonly used are sulfates.They come under various names, such as "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate", "Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate", "Sodium Laureth Sulfate", etc... Known to be irritants, they destroy the skin's hydrolipidic barrier and thus strip it. A shower gel that contains sulfates is therefore strongly discouraged for those with sensitive skin.
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