Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is commonly used in skincare products such as body wash, cleansers, shampoos and hand washes. It&#;s the ingredient that gives these products the foamy, bubbly consistency most of us associate with a squeaky clean.
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There are also other types of sulfates including Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) and Ammonium Laurel Sulfate (ALS). Sulfates are the ingredients which make a product foam up and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is the most commonly used.
SLS and SLES are produced from coconut oil, palm kernel oil, or petroleum oil and you&#;ll find them widely used in skin and hair care products.
More skincare ingredients to avoid SLS in skincareWhy your skin needs natural ingredients
Your skin is the largest organ in your body, like the brain, liver, heart and kidneys. And just like other organs it has a specialised function:
It protects you from the outside world including chemicals and bacteria
It regulates your temperature and fluid balance in the body through the sweat and it&#;s also the main reservoir for Vitamin D production in the body
It enables you to feel heat, cold, touch, pain as well as sense the greater world around you.
This delicate yet resilient vital organ does a great job without obstruction and interference.
However, the chemicals in day-to-day skin such as SLS have been shown to irritate the skin, causing problems such as:
Skin and eye irritations
Dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis
Skin rashes
Hormonal disruptions
Dizziness and headaches
Chemicals such as SLS interfere with the skin&#;s natural ability to regulate and protect. The result is skin that can&#;t do its job properly leading to the problems listed above. If you do experience skin irritation, dryness, flaking or other skin conditions, try using rosehip oil. It is incredibly effective at relieving these conditions and providing moisture back to the skin.
Need relief from eczema or dermatitis?
Using a hand cream which contains essential fatty acids, vitamin E, allantoin and rosehip oil will soothe irritation and keep your hands soft and supple.
The mind-skin connection &#; Psychdermatology
Yes, this link does indeed exist according to science. It&#;s called Psychdermatology and is the field of study that shows how your state of mind affects the quality of your skin. Many scientific studies have shown that your skin responds to your mental and emotional health.
Stress and anxiety have been shown to inflame conditions such as psoriasis, eczema and acne. Whereas inducing a state of relaxation through meditation or even a holiday break have been shown to alleviate skin conditions such as these.
With the evidence on our side, is it any surprise that skin care without additional irritants such as SLS would greatly improve your skin condition?
It&#;s not only the product itself, it&#;s also an act of great self-care when you opt for natural skin care. When the body-mind is happy, you&#;re happy.
Is your skin prone to acne or dry and flaky?
Kosmea's Rescue Range is a nature&#;s first aid kit for the skin and will ease both mind and body for great skin.
Our products are SLS free, completely natural and enriched with healing Rosehip Oil to balance the natural oils in your skin.
By keeping a bottle in your handbag, car or your desk at work, you will always be able to find relief whenever your skin irritations arise. Plus, if your life has you regularly on the move, take a look at our Rescue Skin Collection which come in perfect travel sized bottles.
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Contact us to discuss your requirements of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate Anionic Surfactant. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Yousuf Mohammed, The University of Queensland
If you&#;ve ever Googled the causes of a skin complaint or damaged hair, chances are someone on the internet has pointed the finger at SLS, or sodium lauryl (or laureth) sulfate, a common ingredient in beauty products, washes, toothpastes and even cleaning products.
So what does this ingredient do, why is it in everything, and what does the evidence say about how safe it is?
When we use a wash or beauty product on our skin, it&#;s probably a liquid made of a water phase and an oily phase. As we know, oil and water don&#;t mix, so something is required to keep the ingredients together.
That something is called a surfactant. A surfactant allows the oil and water molecules to bind together &#; it&#;s what&#;s found in soaps and detergents so we can wash our oily faces or dishes with water and get the grime to disappear.
Sodium lauryl sulfate is a surfactant, and its efficacy, low cost, abundance and simplicity mean it&#;s used in a variety of cosmetic, dermatological and consumer products.
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Read more: Health Check: what should I eat to improve my skin?
Our skin&#;s outermost layer is specially designed to keep harmful stuff out, and this is where a surfactant can cause problems. Using a chemical that weakens this defence mechanism can potentially cause our skin harm.
And some surfactants are more irritating to our skin than others. For something to be harmful, irritant or allergenic, it has to fulfil two criteria.
It has to have been found in studies to irritate human skin, and it has to have the ability to penetrate the skin. SLS ticks both of these boxes.
Researchers from Germany tested 1,600 patients for SLS irritancy and found 42% of the patients tested had an irritant reaction.
Another study, on seven volunteers over a three and a half month period, found regular contact caused irritation, and the irritation subsided once the skin was no longer exposed to SLS.
Another study found the warmer the water used with SLS, the more irritating it will be.
In fact, SLS is so known to cause irritation, it&#;s used as a positive control in dermatological testing. That is, new products being tested to see how irritating they might be to human skin are compared to SLS - something we know definitely to be irritating.
If a person is sensitive to SLS, they might find the area that has been in contact is red, dry, scaly, itchy or sore.
It&#;s also important to note there&#;s no scientific evidence SLS causes cancer, despite what you may read on the internet.
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So if it&#;s known to be irritating to human skin, why don&#;t the regulatory authorities ban its use?
For SLS to be considered dangerous, it would have to be in contact with the skin for a long period of time. Generally, with consumer products such as washes that contain SLS, it&#;s assumed they won&#;t be on the skin for very long, meaning the chance of your skin being affected is pretty low. So authorities don&#;t ban its use, but instead cap the maximum percentage at which it can be used in products.
This cap varies based on how long the product is likely to be in contact with the skin. So products that will be on the skin for a prolonged time can contain no more than 0.05-2.5% SLS in most countries.
All consumer and cosmetic product manufacturers are required to conduct thorough testing and include any adverse findings in the form of warnings on their labels. So on products containing SLS, you should see something like &#;if this product causes any skin redness or irritation, discontinue use and consult a medical practitioner&#;.
Read more: What are hives, the common skin condition that gives you itchy, red bumps?
People with a history of sensitive skin, hyperirritable skin and patients suffering from skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis (eczema), rosacea and psoriasis are best to avoid products containing SLS.
There are many safer alternatives available (look for fatty alcohol ethoxylate, alkyl phenol ethoxylate or fatty acid alkoxylate on the label). If you think it might be SLS causing a skin irritation, stop the use of the product and ask your pharmacist or GP for advice. Skin care products also have hotline numbers on the packaging that can be contacted to report adverse effects.
Yousuf Mohammed, Dermatology researcher, The University of Queensland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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