Katie’s Conundrum:
Hey Beauty Brains! Love your site, I’ve found it recently but I’m addicted. I have a question about the-one-and-only Vaseline. I use itfor everything: lips, removing eye makeup, and as an lash conditioner. But I’ve been hearing that petroleum jelly is really bad for you, even claiming to cause breast cancer after long term use! What’s your say?I knew I could count on you! 
Thanks!
The Left Brain’s Greasy Guff
What a great question and one that many of your fellow Beauty Brainiacs wonder about too. The quick answer is this¦nonsense! There is no evidence that petroleum jelly causes breast cancer, skin cancer, or any other type of cancer. The people that are telling you it does are either misinformed, misguided or liars.
So, here`s the bottom line on Vaseline, aka petroleum jelly, aka petrolatum. It was first discovered in the late 1850`s and was later patented and sold to the general public in 1872. These facts are just included to show that it`s been around and used for a long time. This doesn`t prove that it`s perfectly safe, but it certainly is compelling evidence.
What is it? It is a by-product from the production of oil. In technical terms, it is a complex combination of hydrocarbons obtained as a semi-solid from dewaxing paraffinic residual oil. It consists predominantly of saturated crystalline and liquid hydrocarbons having carbon numbers predominately greater than C25.
What is it used for? In the beauty business, it is one of the best performing occlusive moisturizing ingredients you can use on your skin. No material has been shown to be better at improving skin moisture levels. The problem with this material is that it feels greasy, so cosmetic chemists spend a lot of time and effort trying to make less greasy feeling lotions that moisturize.
Is it safe? After combing through the published medical evidence over at PubMed we could find no studies that linked petroleum jelly to any cancers whatsoever. If someone is claiming such a link, it is not being done by a reputable scientific research organization. If you are curious, read this safety data that manufacturers of petroleum jelly must provide to users.
In Europe (EU) the only restriction on the use of this material is that you have to have a certification from the producer of petroleum jelly that it is free of carcinogens. This is required because SOME methods of production can result in petroleum jelly mixtures that have known cancer causing ingredients in them.
Beauty Brain`s bottom line.
Petroleum jelly will not cause cancer. It is perfectly safe and is an excellent ingredient for skin and hair care products. If someone`s telling you different ask them what they are trying to sell. No doubt, some natural alternative. Nonsense.
And if you`re curious, here are a host of other fun applications for petroleum jelly.
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{ 66 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m afraid Beauty Brains gives itself away when it publishes the idea that an association such as the Cosmetics & Toiletries Association has no agenda but “The things you have read are most likely written by small natural/organic companies who want to trick you into buying their products. Please don’t fall for their ploys.” Ooh, those nasty, conniving small natural/organic companies! What a laugh!
I’ll not be stopping by this site again.
And congratulations to Natalie for starting this ball rolling but not to Midbrain who tries to shame Natalie and her parents because the website shows her online at 1am. Chances are she’s in a different time zone.
@jen – who said CTFA didn’t have an agenda and what does that have to do with whether petroleum jelly causes cancer or not?
Considering the majority of arguments here commit an ad hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, consider these scientific facts: anything above C25 is too big of a molecule to be absorbed, and contamination comes through the external refinement or interference with the product. However, as a sealant, it keeps in contaminants (in your skin, for example), and prevents them from escaping. At the end of the day, if it works for you, well done, if not, just…don’t use it. Cope.
am i being stupid or has the beauty brian totally contradicted themselved with the paragraph ‘In Europe (EU) the only restriction on the use of this material is that you have to have a certification from the producer of petroleum jelly that it is free of carcinogens. This is required because SOME methods of production can result in petroleum jelly mixtures that have known cancer causing ingredients in them.’ So basically there is a risk of carcinogens in petrolium jelly for those unlucky ones outside the EU?
Why do so many cosmetics on the market now state ‘free from mineral oils’?
Thanks for posting this. I have a toddler with eczema, and Vaseline seems to be the only thing that relieves his itching. I also use it when he has a diaper rash, and it works great. I have a friend who is a pharmacist and has a toddler with VERY bad eczema. She is an extremely contientious “green” mom and does her research. She took her daughter to Emory University’s allergy center for help with the eczema. For a moisturizer, they recommended Vaseline. That’s what she uses, and she’s who recommended it to me.
Those of you who really care about the risks should read this:
http://preventcancernow.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/cancer-pcn-1.pdf
I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding the use of petrolatum in skincare, but I have to weigh in on this one. The gist of my post here is, you can’t argue with results. I am 42 years old and have been putting Vaseline on my face nightly since I was 12. I have not one single line or even the beginning of one ANYWHERE, and my skin is and always has been clear firm and glowing. I live in a college town and am often taken for a student. This having had absolutely no cosmetic ‘help’ of any kind, such as botox or whatever peels people get to help their skin. I did not have a problem with acne or clogged pores when I was of the age most likely to be bothered by such things – my teens and early 20’s, well into my usage of supposedly pore-clogging, toxic Vaseline. I have often been asked over the years what I do to my skin, and when I tell people, they are surprised but – bored I guess is the word. They always want to know what ‘else’ I do, what the real secret is. I often have ended up recounting or writing down my entire skin-care regiment (essentially further boring self-prescribed and mainly old-fashioned natural treatments). I experimented with a lot of other things in terms of moisturizers but nothing ever compared to the Vaseline, so I’ve just kept using it. I am allergic to sunblock, so my skin has not even had the benefit of that over time and still it remains in good shape due to what I can only assume is the perpetual application of petrolatum.
I have researched it a lot myself, knowing all the concerns out there, and here, for what its worth, is my take:
Yes its non-renewable. All the more reason to make good use of what would otherwise be a waste product. The refinement process may be bad for the environment, but the production of petroleum jelly is not, of itself, the purpose of that process; in otherwords, people would refine petroleum anyway, we might as well make good use of the byproducts, otherwise we are really creating waste for no reason.
Petroleum jelly in its purified state contains no carcinogens, comedogens, sensitizers or anything harmful (comfrey, on the other hand… look it up). BUT – you MUST use only the kind that is labelled as 100% USP. That means “United Standard of Purity” – it has been purified to pharmaceutical-grade standards. It should have virtually no smell. It MUST say this on the label or you cannot be sure. The problem is that cosmetics companies do not have to tell you on the label from whence they source their product, so for all you (and they) know, it could be a source whose refinement process adds or fails to remove harmful substances. This is why I would AVOID any PRODUCT that contains petrolatum or mineral oil unless you can confidently ascertain its source. That is also why, even though it was banned in the UK several years ago, even they had to admit that properly processed material was safe and made legal exceptions for companies that could obtain certification that they sourced theirs from someplace that did refine it to a point of acceptable purity (which again is what we do here in the U.S. with the USP designation).
Animal testing: this is a big consideration for me as I am a vegetarian. According to my research, virtually EVERYTHING is tested on animals at some point and to some degree. If not the actual ingredient itself, then most likely components of it are or have been. Especially ‘new’ discoveries of the industry. So your best bet at minimizing the impact you have here if it is a concern of yours is to try as much as possible to keep your usage to ingredients of long-standing wide-spread use, things that are so familiar to the industry that there is no longer any need to test them because their properties and effects are so well-known already. Petroleum jelly is a major example of such an ingredient, having been around I believe about 160 years or so.
Regardless of all implications to the contrary, it is from a natural source. The refining process may be unnatural (but not, I would venture, more unnatural than say running rose or jasmine petals through hexane in order to distill their fragrance, which is the only way to extract the essential oils from these flowers) but crude oil is a product of dinosaur bones which are, whether we like it or not, as natural as anything else. (Since the dinosaurs were already long dead and not killed in the process there is no conflict for me with the vegetarianism, in case anyone is wondering).
I also use petroleum jelly to heal cuts and burns – its magic, they heal overnight practically. I put it on my kids with abandon; it is the only thing that has helped my daughter’s eczema. Over the years I have met or heard of a handful of women who look astoundingly youthful for their ages, and when questioned every SINGLE one of them has said she uses straight petroleum jelly on her face as a moisturizer (often combined with rosewater in the unofficial ’sample’ of women I’ve come across. I use it too. Maybe there is some significance to that too, I don’t know).
Petroseum jelly gets SUCH a bad rap but I just have to say, I am so glad I discovered it young and ignored all the negativity about it because it had done me nothing but good.
I have just read every comment on this page.
WHAT THE HECK.
I have never seen so many credulous marks outside of a psychic fair. What is going on with this page? How is it attracting so many cranks?
Or is this just what normal people are like?
The Internet has a tendency to create polarized views which you almost never see in real life. Completely normal people can become quite odd when they get online.
Petroleum has been banned as an ingredient in beauty products in the EU (European Union) due to research showing its possible link to cancer.
Here in the US african american women have a higher risk for a more aggressive form of breast cancer, while hair products for african americans ALL contain petroleum in one form or another. Studies have found petroleum by-products in breast tissue of cancer patients at 2x the levels of women without cancer.
I think the evidence clearly points to a risk. There is no smoking gun yet, but the risk has been clearly defined.
“Petroleum has been banned as an ingredient in beauty products in the EU (European Union) due to research showing its possible link to cancer.”
That is just not true.
HI, I would give you all a suggestion that why do u want to use petroleum products when they are not good for the environment. If petroleum jelly was so gr8 then why didnt the egyptians found it. ah ha. Because they know that petroleum sux.. they were a far advanced society thats why theycould build such massive pyramids. So, the egyptiand use to use vegetable oils cause the oils penetrate deeper into the skin tissue instead of blocking the moisture in the skin it moisturizes your skin from within and keeps it healthy too.. like almond oil, jojoba, grapeseed, olive, wheatgerm, apricot, avacado oils and many more.. Wow what a gr8 natural solution so fuck petrolem man… why take chances on fools who make their money with our lives.
Thanks
Tarun
Wow, this discussion is remarkable! I’ve read quickly through, what, two years of debate, which means that sweet, passionate natalie must be about 13 by now. I think I’ve absorbed the gist of what all the contributers think and feel on the issue of vaseline/petroleum jelly/white petrolatum as a skin care product or at least an ingredient. I’m not skilled at using logic (as in philosophy) or for completely understanding the scientific method, onus of proof, triangulation, etc. as in what researches need to be doing when they do research. I like the common sense points that many have made, such as beautyphilosopher’s biographical-based insight about “if is has a smell…” or odour. I do remember my mother having a jar of the Vaseline FOREVER (it used to be a family joke between my brothers and I, wondering how long she’d had that jar, if it ever would run out and what did she use it for??? Talk about exposure to bacteria and contaminants!!).
At any rate, I know there are many naturally based products out there for excema, which I have a mild case of and for which I often use vaseline to calm it down. Even plant-based, natural products can be powerful and one needs to be careful about how to use them. The fact that petroleum jelly is a by-product (like sliced cheese) of processing crude oil (or whatever it’s called, forgive my ignorance) does make it guilt-inducing even if the oil is not being processed so that we can have vaseline!
One think I do not understand and would like to know the answers to, is what the terminology on the websites and links posted in previous responses means… like when the authors of that article posted by Marie Anders show in their chart the terms “possible” or another one was “persistent” (from that Skin Deep website)… and when Irenaeus writes “…contamination comes through the external refinement or interference with the product…” I’m wanting to understand what that means, but even my highly skilled ability to infer meaning is getting stretched!!
With much respect and admiration,
Willasmom
The product is safe as long as it is not INGESTED. That is the problem with lip gloss and lipstick. Moisturizers are also absorbed through the skin as well, so in essence they are also being ingested into our bodies.
WoW. This is amazing I must say and impelled me to make a comment. I’ve learned a lot about petroleum in the past couple days from this website and others and my stance is, I’m going to keep using it as the need arises. On another page under the comments, a woman said her friend who had Breast Cancer was told by the Mayo Clinic to use Vaseline as a deodorant and it works amazingly. How curious. Naysayers clain it causes cancer, yet a nationally well known Clinic is telling a woman who had cancer to use it, on her underarms let alone. Hm. You’d think if there was any true fact based notion that this product could even remotely cause cancer they wouldn’t even think of it!
How tricky things are.
Its hard here on the net, in public forums such as these to really know the truth with so many conflicting ideas. I’m in the school of thought, that, what harm can it do? Others have said it cannot sink into the skin because of its nature and many have been using it for years with good affect.
It seems to do quite a lot of good, not only for skin but if you check around there are a plethora of other, some surprising, uses.
So for those who do not want to use it on their skin, you could find the other ways to use it and make the most out of the natural resource.
Also, love the comments where people are listing all that is potentially harmful.
Man has dominated man to his injury. (Ecclesiastes 8:9) is this not the case, especially here.
I just wondered recently, at what point did we have to start processing foods for example and then making cars which produced gases, and the list goes on and on and on. People are destroying the earth and themselves, I do it too, everyone does.
Not to make this religious, but, not only is it “man’s” fault, the ruler of the world is in control 1 John 5:19 “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” God promises that soon though he will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”-Revelation 11:18
Gods kingdom will put an end to human rulership and those who along with the ruler of this world abuse the earth. God will rescue the earth and people who obey his requirements according to his word. Isaiah 45:18 “For this is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the [true] God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am Jehovah, and there is no one else” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1; Psalm 115:16) and Psalm 37:29: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”(Psalm 37:9-11; Proverbs 2:21-22)
It wasn’t my goal to talk about the Bible here, but it lent itself well.
Soon, all of the wrongs will be made right through Gods Kingdom (Daniel 2:44) and there will be no need to worry about cancer, sickness, death, wars etc.. When God puts an end to all suffering here on earth- Revelaton 21:4
Its Something to look forward to for people who care about themselves, others and the earth, an earth free of pollution and we can live how God meant us to live; healthy and happy.
WoW. This is amazing I must say and impelled me to make a comment. I’ve learned a lot about petroleum in the past couple days from this website and others and my stance is, I’m going to keep using it as the need arises. On another page under the comments, a woman said her friend who had Breast Cancer was told by the Mayo Clinic to use Vaseline as a deodorant and it works amazingly. How curious. Nay-sayers claim it causes cancer, yet a nationally well known Clinic is telling a woman who had cancer to use it, on her underarms let alone. Hm. You’d think if there was any true fact based notion that this product could even remotely cause cancer they wouldn’t even think of it!
How tricky things are.
Its hard here on the net, in public forums such as these to really know the truth with so many conflicting ideas. I’m in the school of thought, that, what harm can it do? Others have said it cannot sink into the skin because of its nature and many have been using it for years with good affect.
It seems to do quite a lot of good, not only for skin but if you check around there are a plethora of other, some surprising, uses.
So for those who do not want to use it on their skin, you could find the other ways to use it and make the most out of the natural resource.
Also, love the comments where people are listing all that is potentially harmful.
Man has dominated man to his injury. (Ecclesiastes 8:9) is this not the case, especially here.
I just wondered recently, at what point did we have to start processing foods for example and then making cars which produced gases, and the list goes on and on and on. People are destroying the earth and themselves, I do it too, everyone does.
Not to make this religious, but, not only is it “man’s” fault, the ruler of the world is in control 1 John 5:19 “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” God promises that soon though he will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”-Revelation 11:18
Gods kingdom will put an end to human rulership and those who along with the ruler of this world abuse the earth. God will rescue the earth and people who obey his requirements according to his word. Isaiah 45:18 “For this is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the [true] God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am Jehovah, and there is no one else” (Genesis 1:28; 9:1; Psalm 115:16) and Psalm 37:29: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”(Psalm 37:9-11; Proverbs 2:21-22)
It wasn’t my goal to talk about the Bible here, but it lent itself well.
Soon, all of the wrongs will be made right through Gods Kingdom (Daniel 2:44) and there will be no need to worry about cancer, sickness, death, wars etc.. When God puts an end to all suffering here on earth- Revelation 21:4
Its Something to look forward to for people who care about themselves, others and the earth, an earth free of pollution and we can live how God meant us to live; healthy and happy.