Continuing our look at the ingredients of the top selling products on Amazon.com…

One interesting thing that I’ve already discovered by writing this series is that the top beauty products on Amazon.com change very quickly. Two days ago Rogaine was the number one product, now it has slipped to number two. As of the time of this writing, the number 4 product is Aveeno Active Naturals Body Wash.

Aveeno Active Naturals Body Wash Ingredients

Water
As with almost every other cleansing product this formula is based on water as a solvent.

Sodium Laureth Sulfate
A cleansing agent which is a cousin of SLS, but a little bit less irritating and a little less foamy.

Glycerin
Moisturizing agent.

Sodium Lauroamphoacetate
Secondary surfactant that produces a nice mild creamy phone.

Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Another foam booster that also allows the formula to be thickened with salt.

Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Cananga Odorata (Ylang Ylang) Flower Extract
Pretty botanical extracts that don’t really do anything.

Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Mauritia Flexuosa Fruit Oil
Oils rich that, at a high enough concentration in a leave in product, could help moisturize skin.  However, it is highly unlikely they are functional in this rinse off formula.

Fragrance
Hey, this stuff’s got to smell good.

Sodium Benzoate
Preservative.

Sodium Citrate
Buffer and preservative booster.

Styrene Acrylates Copolymer
Thickener.

Polysorbate 20
Emulsifier.

Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose
Thickener.

Polyquaternium 7
Skin conditioning ingredient.

Tetrasodium EDTA
Preservative

Citric Acid (may also contain)
pH adjuster. (Only added to the formula if the pH is too high, which it says “may also contain.”)

Image credit: Amazon.com

QM29′s irritation inquiry: I’ve read about SLS and how it is a harsh cleanser that dry/sensitive skins should avoid. But there are plenty of variety in “cleanser components” in shower gels/shampoo/soaps. Which are the components to look for when you have dry skin and/or dry hair ? Which ones are to be avoided ? Are they the same for skin and hair ?

The Right Brain’s mildness missive:
There are many ingredients that are milder than SLS but rather than bore you with a litany of chemical names we’ll cut right to the chase: Based on several research studies (see references below from the Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists), the mildest cleansing ingredient for hair and skin is: sodium cocoyl isethionate.

Why so serious (about mildness?)

Sodium Cocoyl Isthionate (or SCI for short) is thought to be milder than other surfactants for two reasons: It doesn’t strip as much natural oil from your skin and it doesn’t attach to protein as strongly as other cleansers so it rinses better and is therefore less irritating. So why doesn’t every cleansing product use this ingredient? Again, two reasons: it’s expensive and (by itself) it doesn’t produce the most aesthetically pleasing product. That’s why you’ll most commonly see it used as a secondary surfactant in products.

If you want to try this mild cleansing ingredient  yourself, here is our top ten list of body washes that use it in significant quantities  (i.e., SCI is the first or second ingredient after water as long as the first ingredient is not a lauryl or laureth sulfate.)

One important note: we’re only talking about the mildness of this ingredient. There is no way for us to know if any of these products will irritate you because of other ingredients, like the fragrance. But if you’re sensitive to sulfate-based products and you are looking for an alternative that is based on milder cleansing chemistry, you might want to give some of these a try.

Top 10 mild body washes

1. Ahava Dermud Moisturizing Shower Cream
2. Carol’s Daughter Goddess Flower Body Cleansing Cream
3. Crabtree & Evelyn Crabtree & Evelyn India Hicks Spider Lily Body Polish
4. Enkido Earthy Pleasures Body Wash
5. I.C.O.N. One Soul Hair and Body Shampoo
6. Moor Spa/Elixea Shower Gel
7. Natural Magic Eco-Herbal Skin Care Herbal Cleansing Foam
8. Nature’s Gate Papaya Velvet Moisture Body Wash
9. Wildwood Naturals Citrus Sage Foaming Bath Butter
10. Zia Natural Skincare Ultimate Cleansing Mousse

Full disclosure: if you click the links above and buy anything from Amazon.com we make like an eighth of a cent per purchase, or something like that. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s enough to cover a couple of bottles of Grey Goose for Sarah Bellum. Thanks for supporting the Beauty Brains!

References (JSCC):

Why is sodium cocoyl isethionate (SCI) mild to the skin barrier?An in vitro investigation based on …2007, Vol 58

Review of properties of surfactants that determine their interactions with stratum corneum 1997, Vol 48

The use of fluorescein as a probe to monitor anionic surfactant rinsability from skin 1998, Vol 49

Have YOU ever tried a cleaning product with SCI? Leave a comment and share your experiences with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Image credit: weddingstamps.info/postage

Sue says...Can all shower gels be used as bubble baths, or are some ingredients only meant for short-term skin contact?

The Right Brain Responds:
Excellent question, Sue, but there’s no simple answer. Products that are intended to remove oil and dirt from skin and hair (like bar soap, shower gels, body washes and shampoos) are a double edged sword. They use surfactants (aka detergents) to dissolve oils to get hair and skin clean, but dissolving too much oil can dry out skin and cause damage. And guess what – the surfactants that do a really good job of cleaning away “dirty” oils also remove more of the “good” oils.

Bath buddies

For most people most of the time, these surfactants don’t pose a huge problem. Most shower gels and bubble baths are based on some combination of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, and Cocamidopropyl Betaine. Short term exposure to these materials is usually fine. But the more sustained the exposure is, the great the chance is that these harsh detergents can dry out your skin.

This is particularly true in the case of bubble baths because a) you tend to soak in them longer, increasing the exposure time and b) the areas of the body that are soaking can be rather delicate (if you catch our drift.)  For example, over exposure to drying bubble baths can have an impact on yeast infections.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Not all shower gels make good bubbles baths, especially if you soak in them a lot. To be on the safe side, either minimize your soak time or look for milder (and more expensive) products that do NOT have Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, and Cocamidopropyl Betaine on the ingredient list.

Erica inquires…I saw the following question over at the Soap Making Forum:  “what are the benefits of bath bombs? like, what’s each ingredient good for?” Sounds like a good topic for the Beautiful Brains!

The Right Brain responds:

Thanks for the heads up on the Soap Making Forum, Erica, it’s a very interesting website and they raised a great question. To get an answer let’s start by taking a look at how bath bombs work.

Building a bath bomb

The key ingredients in a bath bomb are sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, essential oils, and color. They may also contain some  miscellaneous goodies.

Basically, these things are just one giant wad of fizzy materials. The technology is simple: sodium bicarbonate is reacted with acid to generate carbon dioxide gas. (The same chemistry is used in old school fire extinguishers and in Alka Seltzer tablets.) As long as you keep the bomb dry, they chemicals won’t react. But as soon as you drop in bomb in the tub, the water quickly breaks it apart (usually within 2 minutes) and the reaction begins. The dissolved gas forms bubbles around tiny nucleation sites like the bottom of the bath tub or the hairs on your legs and give your a tingly, tickling sensation. (Yes that’s right for an extra fizzy experience, take your bath before you shave your legs!)

Bath bomb benefits

So what do these ingredients do for you? Experientially a lot – the bubbles give your skin a tingly treat and the essential oils add to the experience by energizing or relaxing you. But functionally, bath bombs provide minimal skin benefits. If they contain certain kinds of salts there is evidence that they may have a therapeutic effect on skin conditions like psoriasis. But while some websites claim that bicarb has a cleansing effect or that the salts soften the water and increase moisturization, in reality soaking in these chemicals don’t enhance cleansing or skin conditioning.

The Top 5 Bath Bombs

If you’re looking for cleansing or moisturization, you’ll need a body was or lotion. But if you’re looking for a relaxing bath experience, bombs are the way to go.  Here are some of our favorites:

1. Moon’s Harvest’s Chocolate Covered Cherry has to be seen to be believed.
2. Lush’s Too Drunk Emotibomb is the most, uh, unconventional bomb we’ve seen.
3. Fizzy Baker’s Raspberry Cupcake is literally a baked good for your bathtub.
4. SpaGlo’s Cucumber Melon is wonderful if you’re a fan of Bath and Bodyworks.
5. Jane Inc.’s Fresh Flowers has the absolute cutest packaging. And for the thrifty shopper we’ll throw in one more: Home Body makes a bath bomb line that’s about half the price of everyone else’s!

How do YOU like to relax in the tub? Do you use bath bombs or other kinds of products? Leave a comment and share your bath beliefs with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Forum member tsunamino says…Short of scrubbing, how can you remove deodorant from your underarms at the end of the day? I’ve heard of this one product, Clarsskin that claims to penetrate the residue left behind to clean it off. Here’s what their website says:

Clarsskin Underarm Cleanser contains a unique patent pending combination of an effective chelating agent with special agents. This complex mixture is specifically designed to remove antiperspirant deodorant residue, efficiently and mildly. So what’s so special about chelating agents? Chelating agents have the capability of penetrating the residue left behind by antiperspirant deodorants — including the metallic salts they are made of! They do one thing and do it well! Clarsskin Underarm Cleanser is particularly effective with ingredients that are unusually mild but contain no sulfates, paraben and DEA.

Of course since it’s “patent pending” they don’t list the ingredients. Is there anything out there that could help to get rid of deodorant?

Right Brain clears things up:
It’s so rare I get to do any product reviews. Sarah and Mid Brain always seem to get product samples before me. However, this question was for me so too was the sample.

What is Clarsskin?

At its most basic level, Clarsskin is a body wash. It uses mild surfactants like Decyl Glucoside (derived from sugar) and Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate so it will not be as harsh as sulfate based body washes.  The mild surfactants also mean it will not foam as well.  The rest of the ingredients are standard.  Here’s a complete list of the formula right from the bottle.

WATER, DECYL GLUCOSIDE, SODIUM LAUROYL SARCOSINATE, COCAMIDE MEA, HYDROXYETHYLCELLULOSE, ETHYLENE GLYCOL MONOSTEARATE, ALOE BARBADENSIS LEAF JUICE POWDER, ANTHEMIS NOBILIS FLOWER EXTRACT, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE, DISODIUM EDTA, DMDM HYDANTOIN, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, FRAGRANCE

How is Clarsskin different?

The key Clarsskin claim is that it helps remove residue from your antiperspirant or deodorant. They say that it contains special “chelating agents” that take care of this problem. Is that true?

Well, the chelating ingredient they are talking about is Disodium EDTA. It is found in many personal care products for the purpose of both removing metal ions and helping boost the activity of the preservative. It is true that extra chelating ingredients will help improve cleansing. The improvement they provide is not normally noticeable so companies don’t bother putting additional levels in. No data is given on the company website to compare the performance to a standard body wash, but in principle this chelating approach could work because the excess deodorant residue is partially composed of water insoluble metallic salts.

Clarsskin Experience

Admittedly, this pit problem was foreign to me until getting the Clarsskin sample. I tried the product and there was certainly an effect. My underarms did feel different. Not sure if “cleaner” is the word I’d use but “fresher”. Since I didn’t want to bias the results I applied it without using my usual bathroom poof. In doing it this way, it was much harder to generate a good amount of foam. More foam doesn’t mean it’s cleaning better but it would’ve improved the experience.

The packaging is nice. You open it once and then squeeze out the product whenever you need it. It’s a good experience but I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it. I’m not sure if the extra step is worth the extra time. Wonder why they don’t just make a whole body wash with the chelating ingredient in it. hmmm

Do you need this product?

People with “pit stains” on their favorite blouses could definitely see a benefit from this product. Are you listening Left Brain? You might also see a benefit if you don’t like how your underarms feel, if you scrub extra hard on them or you just can’t seem to get them clean. The extra chelating ingredient could actually help get you cleaner.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line:

Clarsskin is an interesting product that attempts to solve a problem that affects at least a portion of the population. If you have a problem with stained shirts or just don’t like how your underarms feel, this product is certainly worth a try. We can’t say for sure it will work for you, but there is at least some science suggesting it might.

If you want to try Clarsskin yourself, take a look at their website.

How big is this problem? Do you think you need an extra product to get your underarms clean? Leave a comment and let the Beauty Brains community know.