Friday, March 19, 2010

Skin care trials - Cetaphil

Today I bought a tube of Cetaphil Daily Advance Ultra Hydrating Lotion. It was about $17, approximately 2 thirds what I paid for the Simple moisturiser. I can't be bothered to go and check the size of the tube, but it's probably about 60ml. This is, apparently, a brand new product aimed at very sensitive, very dry skin - which is exactly what mine is at the moment. (Although to be honest my skin is going through an eczema-ry stage, so keeping my complexion well moisturised at the moment is probably too much to expect of any product.)

The ingredients list is (my notations are informed by the ingredient dictionary at the back of Don't go to the cosmetics counter without me): 
  • water - top marks for not going for the more pretentious word "aqua"
  • Glycerin - an known emollient (yay)
  • Hydrogenated Polyisobutene
  • Cetearyl Alcohol - an emollient and thickening agent (yay...I think)
  • Macadamia Integrifolia Seed Oil (Macadamia Nut Oil) - a known emollient (yay)
  • Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) - another known emollient (yay)
  • Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl acrylate Crosspolymer - forms a film over the skin to make it feel nice and smooth, but apparently also a weak skin sensitizer
  • Sodium Polyacrylate - as above
  • Phenoxyethanol - one of the less irritating cosmetic preservatives
  • Tocopheryl Acetate - an anti-oxidant (yay)
  • Ceteareth-20 - a fatty alcohol used to thicken the lotion
  • Stearoxytrimethylsilane, 
  • Stearyl Alcohol - a fatty alcohol used as an emollient (yay)
  • Benzyl Alcohol - an alcohol known to have a potentially drying and irritation effect on skin (boo!) but at least it's near the bottom of the list so there's not so much of it.
  • Farnesol - plant extract used for fragrance (boo!)
  • Sodium PCA - water binding agent (yay)
  • Panthenol - alcohol form of vitamin B (yay...I think)
  • Cyclopentasiloxane - makes the skin feel smooth and slippery (sure, why not!)
  • Dimethiconol - as above
  • Citric Acid - prevents the formulation from being too alkaline (yay)
  • Sodium Hydroxide - prevents the formulation from being too acidic (wtf?) and extremely irritating in large doses.
So, by the above list, should be okay to use. It's got heaps of emollients and slip-making agents and not too much in the way of potential irritants. 
When I got home with it this afternoon I cleansed, toned and then smeared a big gob of the stuff all over my face. It was already a bit irritated from this change-of-season irritatedness so I didn't expect the new moisturiser to make it all better. 

The good thing is that my skin didn't feel like parchment an hour later, and didn't make my skin feel any worse. 
I shall keep an eye out for how this product feels on my face for the next month (or until the tube runs out) and keep you posted.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck. Skin dryness sounds terrible! I can only imagine what it's like to have that problem (mine is like an oil slick). Dr Adrian swears by Cetaphil so I hope it works out for you!

Angela said...

Hope it works well.

Violet said...

I've had the oil slick problem too, though that's going back at least a decade. I always had a shiny face and tin full of translucent powder on me at all times.