First, why the marketing focus around being “Paraben Free”. Parabens are an extremely common group of preservatives which have been around since the 1960’s. They did some short term testing and didn’t find any problems. But parabens are very rapidly absorbed through the skin and once in the blood system they mimic estrogen and bind to estrogen receptors.
So two problems, first you have a foreign chemical entering your body daily and second, it looks like estrogen. The problem there is that cancers which are estrogen sensitive could be stimulated. In a British study they looked at breast cancer tissues and found large quantities of parabens within the breast cancers. Secondly, what is the effect of this low level estrogen like chemicals on children? Look at the age that young girls enter puberty – The age is dropping since parabens came onto the market. The age was around 12-14 for many years, but since the 1960s they are dropping and it is not uncommon to see girls starting puberty well before 10. Note that the age of puberty of boys hasn’t changed over this period.
Why does skin care need preservatives? For skin creams to be very nourishing and effective they are also very nourishing to bacteria and molds. Imagine a jar of mayonnaise sitting on your bathroom counter – It would be growing out of the jar in a few weeks, so you must have preservatives. Skin cream would similarly start turning green and black within a few weeks without preservatives.
So now if you want to avoid parabens, you go to the store, or online, and look at the list of ingredients. You think you’re safe if you don’t see methylparaben, ethylparaben, butylparaben, etc. then you think you’re safe. But that isn’t the case. Companies only need disclose on their listed ingredients those ingredients which they add into the product or specify from a supplier. But many of the ingredients a company purchases themselves need to be preserved, and parabens are the preservative of choice. So many companies who say they are paraben free are turning a blind eye to the parabens which sneak in with their purchased ingredients.
There are other preservatives which are just as nasty as parabens, but they haven’t become an marketing focus because products must be preserved. One category are formaldehyde releasing agents. Nobody would add formaldehyde to the product and put it on the label. Below is a list of five common compounds which breakdown fairly readily and when they breakdown they release formaldehyde. Diazolidinyl Urea, Quaternium-15, Imidazolidinyl Urea, DMDM Hydantoin, and Methyldibromo glutaronitrile. So a sneaky way to get formaldehyde into the product without having to list it on the label. Formaldehyde is also very toxic to the skin cells and irritating.
The last common way companies will preserve their products is by using natural oils like Tea-Tree oil, Grapefruit see oil, etc. These aren’t harmful, but they irritate your skin. You don’t want skin care to irritate your skin, you want it to sooth your skin.
One clue that there is some sort of preservative in the product is look at the packaging. If a cream is in a jar, you’re guaranteed there is a preservative of some sort.
There are a few companies that are truly preservative free, but without preservatives they use refrigeration to extend the shelf life or the shelf life is very short, just a month or two. If you don’t mind keeping your skin and personal care products in the refrigerator and don’t mind a shelf life of only a couple of months, then these are an option.
One company, Usana Health Sciences, has a patented self preserving technology that enables the product to be shelf stable at room temperature for two years. They use liquid crystals to encapsulate the ingredients which would feed bacteria, so there isn’t anything in the product which is available to enable the bacteria to grow, but when you apply it to your skin the microscopic crystals dissolve and the active ingredients are released onto your skin. They worked for six years to develop this process, and with a patent on the technology, it will be many years before they have any competition.