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!

Cynthia’s feeling rosy: I LOOOVE the Beauty Brains! Thanks for everything you all do! Here’s my question: I came across a new skin care company online called Aroma Prescriptions. I am thinking of buying their rose moisturizer but since it’s over $100, I wanted to ask you guys first! The line claims that rose oil has been used as medicine for years and is great for the skin. I wanted to see what you guys thought of rose oil all over the body and if it really is known to be good.

The Left Brain finds some thorns:
Thanks for the kind words Cynthia. It’s always nice to hear from our fans. The Aroma Prescriptions line is interesting. All of their products are formulated by a physician who touts the benefits of rose oil. He says their flagship product, Roses of Sparta Pure Rose Oil Lotion, is America’s only physician-formulated rose oil lotion.

A rose by any other name

You can check out the website for the entire list of claims but basically the good doctor says his special rose oil smells better than regular rose oil used in other products. “With one whiff, rose connoisseurs will understand its significance” and “unlike any synthetic rose fragrance, this REAL rose aroma is deeply entrancing and unrivaled.” Ok, fine. The stuff smells really good. I’ll give him that. He also claims that rose oil has been used to treat chronic skin conditions like rosacea and eczema by multiple medical cultures and that it has natural anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties. Let’s see if that’s true.

Does rose oil really work?

It’s true that rose oil contains over 300 different chemical compounds and that several of them do have some functional properties. For example, citronellol, been shown to be an antioxidant while geraniol and eugenol have antibacterial properties. A quick search of Pubmed confirms that that as far as essential oils go, rose oil is a pretty good anti-oxidant. I couldn’t find any specific references to rose oil’s anti-inflammatory or antiseptic properties. In fact, according to at least one source, rose oil can be a skin sensitizer and an irritant.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Antioxidant and antibacterial properties are beneficial in skin care, but there are many ways to formulate these into a product. There just doesn’t seem to be any compelling data to show that this rose oil product is really better. If you’re one of those rose connoisseurs who love the way it smells and you can afford it – then buy it. But if you’re buying it because it’s better for your skin, this Beauty Brain says there’s no proof that this product is worth that much money.

“It’s like having lots of gasoline…and a match.”

That’s how the lead researcher describes his team’s new break through in skin research.

Rosacea revealed

Dr. Richard L. Gallo, M.D. Ph.D. of the University of California’s San Diego School of Medicine and his team of researchers have found the cause of rosacea, a condition also referred to as adult acne. (You can learn more about the red-faced regret of rosacea here.) They discovered that unlike real acne, which is caused by bacteria, rosacea is caused by a combination of two abnormal factors.

A protein menage a trois

According to Science Daily, Dr. Gallo’s team found that when too much of two different inflammatory proteins are produced, they interact and boost the levels of a third protein. It’s this unusual protein triple play that produces the red-faced features that characterize rosacea.

Is there a cure?

Currently there is no good treatment for rosacea. Antibiotics can help but the underlying cause is not bacterial so they usefulness is limited. Dr. Gallo hopes that this research will lead to a brand new therapeutic treatment for this condition. Now if they can only find a cure for bacne!