Skincare products - Walk of shame

[marcBarna]

^That happened to me when I used the mask, too harsh ! all the face was red.

 

[The_Ida]

All of the "natural" organic stuff. Gave me allergies. Barf. Now I only use skin care with minimal, safe ingredients like mineral oil. Safest stuff out there.

 

[The_Ida]

Oh yes and Clinique really should be banned and sent to hell. MASSIVE allergic reaction.

 

[wishbone666]

kiehls has to be one of the worst brands I've tried. All of their products have made my skin burn really badly and given me a rash, especially the midnight recovery concentrate and the ultra facial moisturiser

All of the "natural" organic stuff. Gave me allergies. Barf. Now I only use skin care with minimal, safe ingredients like mineral oil. Safest stuff out there.

I'm confused about this whole natural/organic thing. Some brands that claim to be 'natural' I have reacted very badly to, but Darphin which I am using now, works really well and apparently contains botanicals

 

[candeo]

^ Natural ingredients like botanical extracts & essential oils, for example, have chemical profiles which are incredibly complex. So it's much more difficult to control interactions with other ingredients and/or anticipate adverse reactions/sensitivities from formulae with these than from something with a simple structure like "non-natural" mineral oil or silicones.

That doesn't means that if you have sensitive skin that you should avoid "natural" ingredients, after all, the #1 sensitizer in skincare in generally fragrance which would not usually be found in an all-natural-organic-type product.

Rather, that if you have senstitive skin and want to use natural products, don't assume they are hypo-allergenic and always patch-test before going full-face

 

[moirla]

I also had a reaction to Clinique skincare, but their makeup (minus foundations and most concealers) is a different story, as least for me.

 

[wishbone666]

^ Natural ingredients like botanical extracts & essential oils, for example, have chemical profiles which are incredibly complex. So it's much more difficult to control interactions with other ingredients and/or anticipate adverse reactions/sensitivities from formulae with these than from something with a simple structure like "non-natural" mineral oil or silicones.

That doesn't means that if you have sensitive skin that you should avoid "natural" ingredients, after all, the #1 sensitizer in skincare in generally fragrance which would not usually be found in an all-natural-organic-type product.

Rather, that if you have senstitive skin and want to use natural products, don't assume they are hypo-allergenic and always patch-test before going full-face

Thanks for explaining I do have sensitive skin and I don't know what the cause is. Some brands that are natural/organic make me react, but I also get reactions from Estee Lauder, Lancome etc as the products always have so much fragrance

 

[olga.]

^^ Estee Lauder is one of the brands that use the biggest amount of parfume/citric acid and other chemical profiles. It's been an ongoing debate about whether their products are even suitable to use on clear skin.

Didn't heard anything negative to that degree about Lancome, but recently The Body Shop is also a subject to scrutiny. I read a medical research where a thesis claimed that only Tea Tree products are somehow safe to use. The rest is a fraud.

There are tons of articles on medical website. Just google for instance "citric acid" or "estee lauder chemicals" and so on, and you can come across some shocking facts.

I am deeply interested in the subject, as I serve as a tester for multiple brands in Poland, because I am noted as one of the four people here with the biggest allergy in the whole country. So, really DO read about these brands, because some glamorous model in the ad does not mean the product is healthy and beyond doubt.

 

[wishbone666]

^^^ MY skin would be nowhere near as sensitive as yours then. There seems to be controversy around both 'natural/organic' skincare brands and brands that use chemicals, so I don't really know whats good. However, what I'm using now works, but who knows if it contains harmful ingredients

 

[moirla]

Kibio Skincare: I received samples of the eye cream and radiance mask and my skin began to become irritated literally seconds after application. Too many essential oils, probably.
Lancome Visionnaire serum: made my skin red and swollen. I'm also quite skeptical about products that make such outrageous claims.
I used Pantene haircare for a few months and it was absolutely terrible. They use way too much silicone in their products.

 

[pavonine]

La Mer Creme de la Mer.

Did absolutely nothing for me. If anything, dotted my face with whiteheads. There are a plethora of better moisturisers in the market which wash the floor with La Mer which cost about a fraction of the price.

Some luxury brands deliver - Sisley, Darphin, Biologique Recherche, Institut Esthederm and Decléor to name a few - and some are just all hype and no substance as I learnt to my cost - La Mer and La Prairie being the absolute worst.

 

[bad-but-stylish]

^ La Mer is actually very similar to Nivea creme, two most popular moisturizers in the world have a lot in common when it comes to INCI list. Both of them contain Paraffinum Liquidum, Paraffin, Lanolin Alcohol and so on, which are the ingredients that can clog your pores. The difference is that La Mer contains Seaweed Extract but I don't believe it's worth that price.

 

[vandekamp]

I know so many people here had a bad reaction to Clinique (and apparently the clarifying lotion isn't good for your skin? oops), but I have extremely sensitive skin and two of their products helped me a lot. Oh well.

I second La Mer. and also Cetaphil. Isn't Cetaphil supposed to be good for sensitive skin? ugh it gave me an allergic reaction and my face was so dry and red and.. it hurt.