What it is
Allantoin is a white powder. It can be found in plants, like comfrey and horse chestnut, and in the urine of most mammals. The type that is most commonly used in cosmetics and skincare products though derives from urea and glyoxylic acid.
What it does
Allantoin has anti-irritant, soothing and healing properties: it calms down irritations, helps shed the upper layers of dead skin cells and promotes the growth of healthy tissue. That’s why it’s effective at treating wounds,eczema, psoriasis, burns and other skin conditions.
In addition, Allantoin is a skin conditioning agent: it softens and smooths skin as well as allowing it to bind in moisture better.
However, there’s no scientific evidence that it has any anti-aging effects.
Side effects
Allaintoin, used in concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 2%, is considered safe.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Allantoin is very soothing to my skin. Recently, some mineral makeup companies start to add it to their foundations and powders.
.-= Dao´s last blog ..GILTY Pleasures Weekly Blog Tour: Vol 5, 2010 =-.
Dao, Allantoin is very good at calming down skin and I’m glad it works well for you
do u mean from the source in cosmetics is urea (urine)????????????????????but u also said once that diazodinyl yrea is made from allontoin(form comfery plant)i’m so con fused that wats the matter actually????????????????????????????????????
Kanwal, allantoin can be derived from the comfrey plant although some companies find it cheaper to produce it in a lab by mixing urea and glyoxylic acid. Urea too can be derived from urine of mammals or made in a laboratory as well. Thing is, there are lots of ingredients that can be either derived naturally or produced synthetically and while organic brands generally use the first type (derived from plants), there is no way of knowing what other companies use as they don’t have to share this information with the consumers.