the scoop on alcohol in skin care

Did you know it’s a really common ingredient and also not that great for your skin? 

Why Do Companies Put Alcohol in Products?

• Preservatives: The germ-killing properties of alcohols help to keep products from spoiling.
• Solvents: They help ingredients (particularly the ones that aren’t usually soluble in water) mix together nicely to create a smooth cream or liquid.
• Astringents: In some products, like toners and cleansers, alcohols are included to help shrink pore size and tighten skin.
• Enhance absorption: Alcohols help the skin to better absorb the other ingredients in any formula, so manufacturers like putting them in moisturizing creams to facilitate penetration of the ingredients.
• Fast-drying: You know how regular alcohol gives you that cooling feeling? That’s because it evaporates quickly. Manufacturers like that because it makes things like hair spray dry quickly.

Are All of Them Bad?

As a whole, we’d say any alcohol could be replaced by a far more beneficial ingredient, so there’s no reason to have it in your skin care.

However, some alcohols are worse than others, and here’s why: they are mixed with “denaturing” agents or additives to make them taste and smell bad—basically, to discourage people from consuming them. These additives are often liquid petroleum derivatives made in a lab.

Examples of these types of alcohols (look out for these ingredients on the label):

• Ethanol
• Denatured alcohol
• Ethyl alcohol
• Methanol
• Benzyl alcohol
• Isopropyl alcohol
• SD alcohol

What do They Do to Your Skin?

• They’re drying: These alcohols, in general, are drying and irritating to the skin. (Think about how your hands feel after you use hand sanitizer—most of which contain a good amount of alcohol.) They strip away the skin’s natural acid mantle, dehydrating cells and potentially increasing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
• They’re irritating: According to a 2008 study on ethanol and skin, “Ethanol use is associated with skin irritation or contact dermatitis.”
• They disrupt barrier function: Your skin has a natural barrier that helps seal in moisture and protect against environmental toxins. Alcohol disrupts this barrier, leaving skin more vulnerable to attack from irritants, allergens, bacteria, and viruses. In a 2003 study, scientists noted this to be true in doctors who were using alcohol-based cleansers to get germs off their hands. They found that it removed “barrier lipids” (healthy fats in the skin) and caused the skin to lose moisture. They noted that among the lipids lost were “natural antibacterials,” which led to the increased growth of pathogenic (bad) micro-organisms.
• They may damage skin: Shocking, right? Lab tests on skin cells have actually shown that ethanol (alcohol) can be toxic to them. In 2002, for example, researchers treated skin cells with different concentrations of ethanol. They found that ethanol damaged the cells, and may also induce cell death. Granted, that was a laboratory study, so the results could be different when tested on living, breathing skin, but the study doesn’t leave us with a fuzzy feeling.
• They can make acne worse: A 2011 study found that over time, acne formulations with alcohol actually exacerbate the condition, because they cause irritation and dryness. When acne prone skin becomes overly dry, it just produces more oil, leaving you with a worse problem than you had when you started.

The best part of all of this information is that alcohol is really easy to avoid in your skin care products. Though they do serve a purpose (as solvents, astringents, preservatives), there are natural ingredients that can do the same thing.

• Natural preservatives: aspen bark extract, vitamin E, rosemary oil, and grapefruit seed extract.
• Natural astringents: witch hazel, lemon essential oil, and mint essential oil. 
• Natural absorption enhancer: avocado oil, because of its high oleic acid content, increase skin permeability.                                                          Annmarie Gianni