Are ‘natural’ products making you ITCH?

Protect your skin’s microbiome by ensuring the products you pick up are ‘paraben-free’

YOU wear your skin every day so it needs nurtured and cared for — even more than your clothes. So what’s the first thing that you look for when it comes to buying a product that will keep your skin in tip-top condition?

Quite often it is a product that claims to be natural or made with natural ingredients but sometimes all is not what it seems.

New research from La RochePosay, to mark Skin Health Month 2019, has revealed that more than one in five (21%), or almost 750,000 adults in Ireland believe they have suffered an allergic skin reaction within the past 12 months, and that over half (51%) of all adults believe they suffer from above average or hyper-sensitive skin.

And a lot of the time your itchy skin could be being caused by the very thing that’s supposed to protect it.

‘There are so many products out there so beautifully packaged that you get presents of different things and you try them,’ says dermatologist Dr Niki Ralph.

‘Everyone has jumped onto the bandwagon of ‘natural is best,’ assuming that if a product says it’s natural then it’s safe to assume there’s nothing in it that will irritate skin.

‘That’s not the case — obviously if you turn over the bottle or jar you might see that the product has tonnes of ingredients in it.

‘We have seen an increase in the number of naturally-derived skincare products coming to market but when it comes to protecting against allergies and maintaining the skin’s barrier function, we would advise people to be mindful of the ingredients that could be causing allergy symptoms.’

‘Once the word natural is used people just pick it up thinking ‘It must be okay for me.’ But actually what they should be looking for are labels like ‘fragrance-free’ and ‘paraben-free’.

SOME products could have a fragrance mix, containing multiple different scents. And there are lots of allergens in the air too, says Dr Ralph.

‘For example you walk into a room and someone has sprayed a household spray and they have plug-in diffusers or candles or reeds. And if you are allergic and there is something in the room like that on a long-term basis, you can end up with facial or neck dermatitis. People don’t think about these things because they haven’t physically put their hands into a jar and onto their face.

‘One of the most common allergens in the last couple of years is the lemon fragrance that’s added to washing capsules and the lovely soaps we use, shower gels and all those kinds of things.

‘If it is in something that washes off then you might not have a problem but if it is a leave-on product you might find that you are allergic to it.’

The skin’s ‘microbiome’ is made from good and bad bacteria. Disruptions or imbalances in the microbiome can lead to the skin’s bacterial culture breaking down and the skin becoming more susceptible to allergens.

Dr Ralph says the use of naturally-derived products as remedies to allergic skin could, in some cases, exacerbate sensitive or allergy-prone skin and lead to symptoms worsening and a further depletion of the skin’s microbiome.

She advises supporting the skin’s optimum bacterial culture through the daily use of a replenishing moisturiser or topical prebiotic is important not only for effective management of all allergies, but also for preventing their development.

‘More women report to have sensitive skin than men so if you do think you have sensitive skin, you shouldn’t be using fragranced products and you shouldn’t be chopping and changing your products,’ she adds. ‘You should stick to whatever works for you. You should use products that are soap and fragrance-free for sensitive skin and once you find products that work for you, you should stick with them.

‘If you have known eczema or truly sensitive skin then you shouldn’t be putting products straight onto your face but you should try them on your body first.

‘You can do a home patch test where you use the crook of your arm as a sensitive site as it is quite similar to facial skin.

‘So if you were to put that product in the crook of your arm every single day for a week and nothing happened, then you would more than likely be able to tolerate it on your face. That is a basic home patch test — you could have formal patch testing done with a dermatologist.’

Now in its third year, the Skin Health Month initiative aims to empower those living with sensitive skin by increasing awareness and encouraging them to seek advice. The campaign will take place in pharmacies nationwide until March 31 and La Roche-Posay’s trained dermoadvisers will be offering free, instore skin consultations to advise on how best to treat and manage skin concerns.

So on a day-to day basis, how should we be looking after our skin? It’s fairly simple, according to Dr Ralph.

‘Basically when you are showering make sure the shower is lukewarm, not hot,’ she advises. ‘Make sure you shower with an emollient which is a soap-free substance that you can buy over the counter. When you get out of the shower you then pat dry and apply another emollient which is soap-free, moisturising and fragrance-free.

‘That should be done as often as possible depending on the level of dryness — once a day for dry skin and more than that for skin with eczema.’