Shelea says: I was wondering if you could help me out? I recently bought Arubix M Anti Redness Cream to “hopefully” assist with the redness of my rosacea. Can you pleeeaaassee tell me are all the ingredients safe?

The Right Brain’s rosy response:

In our previous posts we’ve explained that rosacea is a type of adult acne. But unlike regular acne, rosacea is not caused by bacteria, it’s a result of the interaction of three different proteins.

Arubix gets the red out

Let’s take a look at the Arubix product you asked about. Here are the ingredients:

Aqua, Crataegus Monogina Fruit Extract, Cetearyl Alcohol, Ceteareth-20, Paraffinum liquidum, Sodium PCA, Isopropyl Palmitate, Chrysanthellum Indicum (Camomile d’Or), Glycyrrhetinic Acid, Cyclomethicone, Mimosa Tenuiflora Bark Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Methyldibromo Glutaronitrile, CI 19140, CI 16255, CI 28440

There doesn’t appear to be anything in this formula that looks terribly unsafe. The only thing to watch out for appears to be the isopropyl palmitate which is known to be comedogenic. That means it tends to cause acne. (If you want to check for which ingredients are comedogenic, you can look at a site like the Acne Detective.)

Of course, it depends on how much of this chemical is used in the formula, but if you’re prone to breakouts just be aware. As far as the fruit and plant extracts are concerned, it’s impossible to predict what any given person will react to. Some people are irritated by citrus extracts, others are allergic to flowers.

How about hawthorn?

The only ingredient that we were really surprised by was the second one on the list: Crataegus Monogina Fruit Extract. A quick peek at Wikipedia revealed that it’s actually hawthorn extract. What is hawthorn, you ask? It’s a type of fruit-producing bush that’s grown for hedges. We found these five fascinating facts about Hawthorn.

• Hawthorn is also called mayblossom, whitethorn, and motherdie. (Motherdie?? What kind of name is that??)
• The fruit contains tannins, flavonoids, essential oil, and triterpene-carbonic acids that can allegedly treat heart and circulatory problems.
• The leaves are good in salads and the fruit (known as a “haw”) make wine, jelly, and candy.
• In Gaelic folklore, hawthorn is believed to ‘mark the entrance to the otherworld’ and is associated with fairies.
• In Serbian folklore hawthorn is thought to be deadly to vampires. In fact, the wooden stakes that are driven into vampires’ hearts to kill them, should be made from the wood of the hawthorn tree.

The Beauty Brains bottom line:

So, in summary: Arubix may be perfectly safe for most people but it may also cause inflammatory acne and and it’s not safe for vampires.

What do YOU think? Do any of you Beauty Braniacs out there have any favorite rosacea cures to share with Shelea? Leave a comment!