MamaHerrera must know…Here’s my big dilemma and it applies to skin, hair, makeup. I love natural oils, My makeup has sunflower oil, castor oil, and beeswax. I put coconut oil on after my nighttime moisturizer. I apply castor oil to my scalp before washing my hair and do deep oil treatments on my hair at times. Now I’ve read that oils and beeswax are occlusive and don’t allow your skin to breathe and that over the long-term, it will actually damage your skin and allow toxins to go to your liver because they can’t escape through your face. If I”m really not allowing pores to breathe, than castor oil will eventually make my hair fall out, no?? So confused, and I remembered a blog from this site and wanted to come here for some help in understanding this. I already avoid silicones because of this, and now what?
The Right Brain reassures her:
Don’t worry, MamaHerrera, using natural oils won’t cause your liver to fail.
Occlusive is good for your skin
Most oils (natural oils, mineral oils, and silicones) ARE occlusive – that just means that they can reduce the amount water that evaporates through your skin. But they don’t SEAL the skin in such a way that sweat glands stop working. Your skin doesn’t need to breathe; it just needs to be able to perspire so it can regulate your body temperature. Occlusive ingredients in topical cosmetics do not impact how much you perspire so you don’t need to worry. Also, the liver handles getting rid of the toxins. That’s not the skin’s job.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I see on the comedogenicity rating site that SLS has a high rating. Does it mean that if I use a soap/shampoo that contains SLS it would be comedogenic, or only if for some strange reason I don’t wash it out? Thanks!
@Pazit, it depends on how sensitive your skin is to SLS. SLS is a known skin irritant and it’s one of the go-to irritants scientists use when they test skin care products. Since it’s in contact with your skin only briefly it doesn’t cause problems for most people.
Some, like me, are more unfortunate. I recently discovered that SLS in shampoo was a big factor behind my scalp acne. Test it and see what happens.
Hello, can you tell more about castor oil? I am using it but not only for hair. Thank.