Is alcohol in cosmetics safe or not?
We all try to avoid it as much as possible but many of us
don’t know that are many types of alcohol: the good ones and the nasty ones. In
benign form alcohols are glycols used as humectants that help deliver
ingredients into skin. When fats and oils are chemically reduced, they become a
group of less-dense alcohols called fatty alcohols that can have emollient
properties or can become detergent cleansing agents. No matter your skin-care
concerns, alcohol as a main ingredient in any skin-care product is a problem.
The nasty ones
have low molecular weights. These include ethanol, denatured alcohol, ethyl
alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, and SD alcohol, which not
only can be extremely drying and irritating to skin but also cytotoxic.
