What it is
Propylene Glycol is an organic alcohol. It is a slightly sweet, odorless and clear viscous liquid.
What it does
Propylene Glycol is an humectant. It has the ability to attract water and help retain moisture. It moisturizes the skin, leaving it soft and is absorbed quickly. It is very good for dry skin.
Propylene Glycol is also used to help stabilize formulations and help active ingredients to penetrate the skin.
It also a solvent used to prevent creams from drying out.
Side effects
Propylene Glycol can cause skin irritation and sensitization. It can also cause contact dermatitis in prone individuals.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes. From what I just read on your web page here:
http://beautifulwithbrains.com/category/ingredients/
You have written that the ingredient Propylene Glycol is not harmful.
I am not here to tell you that you are wrong because I appreciate what you are doing with your website. This is a wonderful way to help people who are learning so, Thank You.
There is further information on this ingredient and others that have been scientifically proven to cause harm not just from a concentrated dose but from normal everyday use. I thought you may like to know.
More about Propylene Glycol and it’s harmful everyday use can be found at this link along with other ingredients that are prevalently used…
http://www.naturalnews.com/025515_chemicals_toxic_body_care.html
Rose, thanks, I’m glad you appreciate my work. I hope people will learn more about ingredients, which makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks for the link you posted. Scientists discover new things all the time and sometimes, some of these discoveries can completely change what we have thought was true and believed, so if I see any new scientific proof that Propylene Glycol is harmful, I’ll promptly modify this post and make a new one to let my readers know about its potential harmful side effects.
But if you don’t mind me saying this, the link you posted didn’t really convince me that Propylene Glycol is dangerous. Here’s why. The article doesn’t really cite its sources. It says the FDA website says Propylene Glycol causes cancer but there’s not a link to that particular page. I checked the FDA site and couldn’t find such info there. If you did, please let me know. Also, they cite the MSDS sheets, but these sheets only talk about 100% concentrations, not the smaller ones used in cosmetics, which are usually considered to be safe.
Finally, the natural news website features posts from a network of websites and this particular article comes from the Inspired Living website which sells natural and organic products. Now, every brand and store is known to exaggerate and twist the truth to boosts their sales, so I’m honestly skeptical about any claims they make, unless they provide links to scientific sources which they didn’t do.
If I overlooked any part of the article and they do cite any reliable source, then by all means let me know and I’ll reconsider.
Hey:). So i bought dr miracle my goodbye acne system like 2 days ago. I saw that it contained benzoyl peroxide so i decided to buy it. I’ve been reading reviews from people and there are so many bad reviews about it. Should i continue using it? I have also noticed that it contains other bad ingredients like propylene glycol and all the parabens. Im really afraid to continue using it. It hasn’t caused any irritation so far but my face becomes really oily after using it even though my face is naturally oily. So should i be patient and contunue to use it or try another product?
Pury, if the product is working well for you, then there is no reason not to use it. I guess the product is getting bad reviews because benzoyl peroxide is a strong ingredients and can thus cause irritations in some people. But if it’s not causing you any problems, then you can keep using it, at least for another month as that’s how long it takes to see if a product is benefiting your skin or not.
Also, even though parabens and propylene glycol have a bad reputation, it is totally undeserved. Parabens are said to be linked to cancer, but that’s not true. What happened is that, a few years ago, a group of scientists took some tissue from women with breast cancer and these tissues were found to contain parabens. However, the same test wasn’t performed on healthy women so it is possible they too have parabens in their tissue, which would prove parabens aren’t the culprit. Also, there is no proof that the parabens ended up in those tissue through cosmetics (parabens are used to preserve food too). Even the scientists who conducted the experiment didn’t think it was worth to investigate further because they didn’t find a link between parabens and cancer, but someone read the study, didn’t understand it correctly (after all, studies are hard to read and understand if you don’t have a scientific background) and spread such false rumours on parabens. Parabens are there to make sure the product won’t get contaminated with bacteria, fungi and yeast and those are actually dangerous.
Propylene Glycol is said to be bad because it is used as anti-freeze in refrigerators. However, when used as anti-freeze it is used in 100% undiluted concentration. In cosmetics, the concentration is diluted and much, much smaller. So small, in fact, that it doesn’t pose a risk to human health. Even wine, for instance, is bad for you if you drink a whole bottle (or more) every day. But if you drink a glass of it at dinner every day, then it’s not harmful at all and can actually do you good because of the antioxidants it contains. It’s the same for cosmetics. It is the dose the makes the poison and cosmetics are strictly regulated to make sure the doses used in them are safe.
Thanks a lot.What about petrolatum,,is it bad?
Pury, you’re welcome. No, petrolatum is not bad either. It gets a bad reputation because it is derived from oil, but it undergoes a refining processes that removes all the bad stuff from it. In fact, the end product (petrolatum) is so changed after this process that it doesn’t resemble oil anymore. They are two different substances with different uses, benefits and side effects.
There really aren’t any toxic and dangerous ingredients in cosmetics. In fact, it is illegal to put toxic stuff in cosmetics and I don’t see why companies would want to do that anyway as their aim is to gain as many customers as possible, not kill the ones they already have. There are however some ingredients that should be avoided because they can irritate skin or cause breakouts such as Alcohol Denat and Isopropyl Myristate, but even then these ingredients aren’t toxic or dangerous for health.