Your favourite moisturiser could be selling you false promises

For those of us with sensitive skin, life is a constant uphill battle.

So when we buy a product marked ‘hypoallergenic’, we expect it not to mess with our skin.

A new study has confirmed our worst fears: that a lot of these products are giving false promises.

Researchers in America looked at the top 100 bestselling body moisturisers sold by Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart.

They measured how well the array of lotions, creams, oils and butters lived up to the terms on their labels such as ‘hypoallergenic’, ‘fragrance free’ and ‘dermatologist recommended’.

The results are hardly surprising. Only 12% of the moisturisers studied were free of any allergenic component on a list compiled by the North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG).

In the hypoallergenic category, a whopping 83% of products contained a potentially allergenic chemical while 45% of moisturisers marked ‘fragrance free’ housed a potentially irritating botanical extract.

Anything labelled ‘dermatologist recommended’ should generally be taken with a pinch of salt, say researchers.

“If you can get just one dermatologist to recommend it, you can call it ‘dermatologist-recommended.’ It’s a marketing term without much meaning behind it,” commented one of the study authors, Jonathan Silverberg.

The results will be bad news for people suffering from skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis who rely on products that claim to contain zero skin-irritating ingredients.

Silverberg added that the study came about after he wondered why so many people still suffer from outbreaks after using a strict regime of products marked as ‘safe’ for those with sensitive skin.

There is a silver lining: the study found a number of products that are free of any known skin allergens. The (admittedly short) list included white petroleum jelly, coconut oils that are cold-pressed and not refined and Aveeno’s Eczema Therapy moisturising cream.

“Anything can cause an allergic reaction in some people,” Silverberg noted. “It’s just they haven’t been identified as clinically common. People often ask for recommendations based on our research, and this is the best of what we have.”

Better get your research goggles on.

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