Years ago, you bought a jar of facial moisturiser that promised both. You stuck your fingers in it and used it for a few weeks, then forgot about it because you bought a new cream that promised something even better. After a couple of years, you find the jar at the back of your bathroom cabinet and it still looks and smells great! Maybe you don't even think about how that's possible because this is what we're used to, that skincare lasts forever. It's exactly what makes this possible that we're focusing on in this article - a group of ingredients that are in pretty much all skin care today, namely preservatives.
Perhaps you've seen potassium sorbate (E 202) on your newly bought bread or sodium benzoate (E 211) on the dressing you're about to eat? These are two examples of preservatives used in food. Preservatives make food last longer because they inhibit the development and growth of various micro-organisms such as bacteria, mould and yeasts. These micro-organisms would otherwise cause the food to rot, mould or ferment. Nowadays, preservation involves heat treatment, cold storage, deep freezing, modifying the atmosphere of the food or adding chemical preservatives. But preserving is nothing new, it has been done by humans since ancient times, but then by drying, smoking, salting, pickling or fermenting food.
As a consumer, you can easily find out if your food contains any preservatives by reading the packaging. Many of us have also learned to read and understand the ingredient lists on foods and some try to avoid certain preservatives that we may have read are not good for us. Something else we can easily read is how long what we are about to eat will last. In fact, almost all food is labelled with a best-before date.
How can traditional skincare last so long?
Preservatives are not only found in food, but also in what we call traditional skincare, and it's what allows our skincare products to stay fresh for years, even after we've opened them. The only problem is that skin care manufacturers don't have to declare the amounts added. Nor do they have to print either the date of production or the shelf life of skin creams for those products with a longer sustainabilitythan 30 months. A skin cream with a long sustainabilityis more economically viable for the manufacturer because, among other things, it can be produced in large volumes.
The reason preservatives of various kinds are added to your skin cream is to kill all potential bacteria and fungi - and make it travel a long way and then be stored at room temperature on a shop or bathroom shelf for almost 3 years. Imagine if we had the same expectations of our fresh foods? Imagine if we demanded to be able to store our crème fraîche or milk standing at room temperature on the kitchen counter for weeks without it going mouldy. That would give you an idea of how much preservative is actually required to keep your skin cream fresh in your warm bathroom cabinet for years.
Imagine what would happen if you poked your fingers into a Creme Fraiche every day and kept it on the kitchen counter or in the bathroom instead of in the fridge.
Extra high concentrations of preservatives are found in skin care products that contain a lot of water, as water is a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi. Most skin care products are made up of as much as 50-80% water.
This happens when you have a completely unpreserved skin cream in a jar after a month. The skin cream contains about 60% water which acts as a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi.
Fresh bread contains liquid and moulds within a week, unlike crispbread, which does not contain liquid and can therefore be stored for a long time without being destroyed by microorganisms.
What are the problems with large amounts of preservatives?
The whole point of preservatives is to kill any bacteria that might get into your skin cream, both fromyour fingers and fromthe air. This is done by the preservative destroying the bacterial wall of the bacteria, thus rendering it harmless. However, this can also have less beneficial effects on our skin. Many preservatives are associated with irritating the skin resulting in burning and sensitivity. There are also others that have allergenic effects and can cause contact dermatitis, i.e. inflammation of the skin caused by a substance coming into direct contact with the skin.
Until about 15 years ago, parabens were the most widely used preservatives. Now they are probably the most blacklisted. In 2004, a high-profile paper was published by researcher Philippa Darbre in the UK in which the research team had found that parabens caused breast tumour cells to grow faster than normal. How much parabens are actually absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin has not yet been established and the study has not been verified, but as word spread to consumers around the world, many skincare manufacturers chose to remove parabens from their products.
Today, phenoxyethanol is by far the most widely used preservative in skin care products (see picture). Several studies have shown that phenoxyethanol is linked to contact eczema and allergies. Researchers have also shown that phenoxyethanol triggers the same sensitivity receptor as chilli peppers, namely trpv1. French authorities have advised from against manufacturing products containing phenoxyethanol for the nappy area of children under three years of age, but there is no such advice in Sweden.
The other more general problem with preservatives is that they don't distinguish between bad and good bacteria. As well as killing any (bad) bacteria that might be present in your skin cream, preservatives can also affect the skin's good bacteria once the cream gets on the skin. In fact, your skin is teeming with bacteria, and more and more studies are showing that our bacteria are far more important to our skin health than we once thought. For example, several studies have shown that an imbalance in the bacterial flora of the skin may be one of the causes of some of our most common skin conditions such as eczema, acne and rosacea.
A research team in Beijing, China, showed that preservatives used in skin care affect the natural skin flora, which in turn can affect our skin health 1-7. Preservatives can thus disrupt normal skin flora, which can lead to poor skin health or even skin disorders.
But we don't want our skin cream to get mouldy!
Skinome's whole philosophy is based on developing products for the best of the skin and of course so the skin care you buy will be free from harmful bacteria and mold. But, the thing is, there are more innovative ways to preserve products instead of using high levels of preservatives. We think the reason no one else is doing what we do is because it's simply a bit more complicated. However, we are convinced that our skincare leads to better skin health and is therefore worth the hassle.
To exclude additives and preservatives, we have much shorter sustainability on our products. Traditional skincare typically lasts 3 years or longer. Our products last only 12 months. We also refrigerate our products,immediately after production to 8°C. And we ask you, the customer, to store the products in a refrigerator. A bit of a hassle, sure, but you're doing your skin a big favour.
According to the EU Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, there must be no risk of mould/bacterial growth during the period of use and therefore the products are tested at specific institutes. Our products also undergo these tests.
To avoid preservatives, we work with the water content to reduce the risk of growth. Our night concentrates contain only about 10% water, which together with the other substances makes the products self-preserving.
We also use skin endogenousor skin-friendly ingredients that help to minimise the risk of bacterial or mould growth. Zinc is a skin-identical mineral that has a good anti-inflammatory skin effect and also a mild preservative effect. In some products we use a very low dose of caprylyl glycol (Rich Emulsion, Light Emulsion, Sensitive Cleanser).
Caprylyl glycol is not an EU listed preservative, but has a mild preservative effect. In traditional skin care, this substance is most often used together with listed preservatives. Our use of caprylyl glycol is very low and we have shown in our studies that our products with this low concentration do not disturb the normal skin flora (see below).
There is still relatively little research on how preservatives affect our skin flora, so we have done our own studies. If you want to read more about a study we did with Linköping University and Gutfeeling Lab that shows positive effects on the skin after using Skinome's facial care products, you can find it here.
We believe that by limiting additives and focusing on what actually makes the skin feel good, we can contribute to better skin health. We are convinced that this is the skin care of the future, are you?
References
- Wang Q, Cui S, Zhou L, He K, Song L, Liang H, H. C. Effect of cosmetic chemical preservatives on resident flora isolated from healthy facial skin. J Cosmet Dermatol. (2018).
- Dréno, B. et al. Microbiome in healthy skin, update for dermatologists. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (2016) doi:10.1111/jdv.13965.
- Kim, H. J. et al. Fragile skin microbiomes in megacities are assembled by a predominantly niche-based process. Sci. Adv. (2018) doi:10.1126/sciadv.1701581.
- Rocha, M. A. & Bagatin, E. Skin barrier and microbiome in acne. Archives of Dermatological Research (2018) doi:10.1007/s00403-017-1795-3.
- Ganju, P. et al. Microbial community profiling shows dysbiosis in the lesional skin of Vitiligo subjects. Sci. Rep. (2016) doi:10.1038/srep18761.
- Chen, Y. E. & Tsao, H. The skin microbiome: Current perspectives and future challenges. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology vol. 69 143-155 (2013).
- Kong, H. H. & Segre, J. A. Skin microbiome: looking back to move forward. J. Invest. Dermatol. 132, 933-9 (2012).
