Renée asks… I’m a stylist and I just started in a new salon. I noticed that everyone uses Gold Bond hand cream after shampooing clients’ hair. I always thought that was kind of a crappy, low grade product. Shouldn’t they be using a better hand cream?
The Right Brain replies:
Gold Bond is kind of the gold standard when it comes to protecting your hands from detergent over-exposure. That’s because it contains 5 times the minimum amount of skin protectant that’s required by law.
The best skin protectant ingredient
The OTC (Over The Counter drug) monograph requires that a formula contain 1% or greater of dimethicone to be considered a true skin protectant product. Since dimethicone is relatively expensive, many companies will skimp on how much they use. But Chattem, Inc, the makers of Gold Bond, put use 5% dimethcone in this product which is MUCH higher than the concentration used by many other creams and lotions. In addition, they include petrolatum another outstanding moisture barrier ingredient. Together these two ingredients help lock moisure in the skin so it can heal itself.
To be honest, I’m a little surprised to see that it also contains menthol which on one hand can give a cooling effect but on the other hand can irritate raw skin. If you like the way it feels, it must be working for you. In any case, this is an inexpensive product that really works – there’s no need to spend more money on expensive brands.
Gold Bond Medicated Body Lotion ingredients
Active: Dimethicone 5% Menthol 0.15%
Inactive Ingredients: Water, Glycerin, Stearamidopropyl PG Dimonium Chloride Phosphate, Petrolatum, Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis) Leaf Juice, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Distearyldimonium Chloride, Ceteareth 20, Propylene Glycol, Steareth 21, Steareth 2, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Disodium EDTA, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Propylparaben, Methylparaben, Triethanolamine, Fragrance
Image credit: Amazon.com
You can buy Gold Bond Medicated Body Lotion
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The menthol is added as the anti-itch active ingredient.
@Carol: Excellent point about using menthol for anti-itch. But some people still find it irritating.
I find that sometimes menthols can make me itch.
The menthol would sting if you had a paper cut or something but it would otherwise be soothing used as an anti-itch ingredient and when your skin is dry it can sometimes get itchy like in winter, ya know, the dry wintertime itchy skin.