Compounds causing allergies in cosmetics

Abstract

COMPOUNDS CAUSING ALLERGIES IN COSMETICS

Any authorised cosmetic product should not do any harm, but help. Before launch, each product undergoes a series of tests which aim to evaluate its safety for the future users. Therefore, the logical conclusion would be that the cosmetics available on the market are not toxic. However, there is a phenomenon of “intolerance” of a certain product or an ingredient and side effects connected with those, which go on through both immunological and non-immunological mechanisms, such as eczema, phototoxic reaction or skin irritation. It is important to notice that the number of people suffering from different kinds of allergies is still rising and nowadays it is more and more difficult to find substances, which will be fully safe for the people using them. Substances that cause most of the allergies are aromatic oils, which is connected with their increasingly frequent use as the fragrance is one of the basic factors that make the customer purchase the product. Another range of substances with high allergy-causing properties are pigments. These are mostly naphtylamine and henna frequently used in hair dies. Yet another reason of intolerance can be preservatives, which are responsible for the shelf life of a product, and these are for example formaldehyde and parabens. Despite the fact of the growing popularity of natural-extract-based cosmetics, some of the floral extracts can be very strong sensitizing factors, e.g. chamomile or calendula, which were used to consider as safe and mild for the skin. Other allergy-causing substances can be bases, solvents or emulsifiers used in the manufacture of cosmetics. Summarizing the above content, we can conclude that although the skin care role of cosmetics, many of them contain substances harmful to the skin and sensitizing compounds.