Sulfate, a group of ingredients widely used mostly in shampoos and bath products, seem to have gained a bad reputation in the beauty world lately and the number of products claiming to be free of them is slowly increasing. But what are they are and are they really harmful for our health? Let’s take a closer look:
What are Sulfates?
Sulfates are a group of substances that include, among others, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS), Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLES), Ammonium Laureth Sulphate (ALS), Ammonium Laureth Sulfate (ALES) and TEA Laureth Sulphate (TEA). These ingredients, which are derived from coconut oil, are cleansing agents that, by helping water mix with oils, are able to lift oil, dirt and other impurities from skin and hair and rinse it away with water.
In addition, it’s sulfates that make our products foam and bubble. Although a bath wash or shampoo doesn’t have to lather or foam to clean well, consumers seem to prefer products that produce lots of bubbles and foam, which is why sulfates (together with their cheap cost) are so widely used in personal care products.
Does SLS cause cancer?
A quick search on the internet will bring up lots of websites claiming that one surfactant, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, can cause cancer, cataract, retard healing, and keep children’s eyes from developing properly. This sounds scary but is it true? First of all, there is absolutely no proof that SLS can cause cancer. There was an email going around claiming that it causes the disease, but that turned out to be a hoax. SLS isn’t classified as carcinogenic by any regulatory agency or cancer authority and there is no reference in scientific literature that even hints at this possibilility. A quick search on Pubmed (a fantastic resources for published scientific studies) doesn’t bring up any studies supporting the claim SLS causes cancer. It just isn’t true.
As for the claims that SLS retards healing and can prevent children’s eyes from developing properly, they seem to have originated from a study conducted by the Medical College of Georgia in 1989. But once again, the conclusions of the study were misunderstood. First of all, the study was done on animals, not people (and definitely not children) using concentrations that are far higher than those used in personal care products.
The study found that if the cornea is damaged, then exposure to high concentrations of SLS can retard healing. But seriously, is that really surprising? Still, that’s no reason to stop using SLS. As for cataracts, in order for SLS to cause it, the lens of your eye should be immersed in this ingredient. But the lens is set deep within the eye so it’s just impossible that it will ever come into contact with SLS! As for children, the scientists didn’t conduct any experiment at all on the effects of SLS on their eyes! So where the claim that SLS prevents their eyes from developing properly comes from puzzles me. It’s just completely made up and false.
Are Sulfates irritants?
The real concern about SLS is irritation. All sulfates, being surfactants that strip oil from skin and hair, can cause irritations when they remove too much natural oil. However, they don’t all have the same irritating potential. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is the worst. It is very irritating and that’s why, when scientists want to verify how much irritation a substance can cause, they compare it with SLS! Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate is only slightly milder than SLS, but still a strong irritant, so if you have sensitive skin, it is best to avoid SLS and ALS.
Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate instead are considered to be very mild and that’s why they also produce less foam. Of course, in particularly sensitive individuals, there’s the chance that these two can irritate skin as well, but most people will be able to use them without experiencing any side effects at all. In addition, the irritating potential of Sulfates also depends on their concentrations (the smaller, the less irritating) and the other ingredients in the products.
If they contain conditioning and moisturizing ingredients that replenish the oils that surfactants took away, their irritating potential is very reduced for example. That’s why it’s important to apply conditioner after shampoo and a body moisturizer after a shower. If you do that, you shouldn’t have any problems at all.
What about leave-on products with Sulfates?
So far, we talked about products like shampoos and body washes that are meant to stay in contact with the skin only for a very limited time before being rinsed off. Unless you have very sensitive skin that gets irritated easily, there is no reason to avoid sulfates (apart from SLS and ALS only) in those products.
But I’ve also noticed that sometimes sulfates are also used in moisturizers and lotions, sunscreens and foundations (all products that are designed to stay on the skin for hours), to give these products a pearlescent appearance. Although some sulfates, as we have seen, can be very mild, I prefer to avoid them in these kinds of products because they are more likely to cause irritations when they’re not washed away. And besides, there really isn’t any need for them in leave-on products.
Should I avoid products with Sulfates?
Unless you’re allergic to Sulfate or have very sensitive skin that’s easily irritated, there is absolutely no reason to avoid them in your products. Sure, they can be irritants, but then every ingredient (natural ones included) in a beauty product can cause a negative reaction to someone or irritate their skin. But apart from that, they don’t pose any health risk at all. On the contrary, they’re safe and effective cleansers. But if you’re still concerned, use only rinse-off products with milder forms of sulfates (like SLES ad ALES) and moisturize well afterwards (although that’s something that you should be doing anyway!).
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Very useful post!!
drugstoreandbargainlover
Stavroula Plag´s last [type] ..Review – Revlon LE Bare Bronze Face Powder
Stavroula, thanks, I’m glad you found it useful.
I just started using some sulfate-free shampoos to see if they would make my hair fall out any less. So far I’ve noticed no difference at all, which is pretty much what I expected. I’m going to keep testing different sulfate-free shampoos, though, cause so many people keep asking me about them!
Jeni´s last [type] ..Ambi Skin Care Fade Cream
Jeni, I’m afraid I’m not surprised that sulfate-free shampoos didn’t help with your problems either.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using sulfate-free shampoos and I’m glad that there are alternatives for those with sensitive skin that may get irritated by sulfates. It just saddens me that there is lots of misinformation out there about these ingredients that might make people want to avoid them in favour of less effective but more expensive alternatives thinking they’re safer when they’re not.
Great article however one of the primary reasons you want to avoid SLS and SLES is because of the size of their molecules. The molecule is very small which means it could deeply penetrate the skin which causes irritation in many.
As a soap maker , skincare advocate and eczema sufferer I highly recommend those with problem skin not use products with these ingredients. Most of my buyers have eczema or some sort of problem skin and they all had bad reactions prior to using my products and I educate them on well known triggers. They had no idea Dove, Aveeno, and others had irritants in them.
A safer alternative would be SLSA which is short for Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate because it is a large molecule and does not penetrate the skin and not known to cause irritation nor strip skin of moisture . Also one of the reasons SLS aka Sodium Laureth Sulfate is used commonly is not only does it create lots of foam however it is cheap and quicker for manufacturers. In other words it is used as a short cut to primarily keep up with population demand..
When making TRUE SOAP free of SULFATES the lather comes from a carrier oil being combined with lye to make TRUE SOAP through a process known as saponifaction. The lye is cooked out and the soap creates and retains natural glycerine. Using a sulfate is a really a short cut because true soap can take weeks if not months to fully.
Like I said this is a good article and you are entitled to your opinion however it was missing bits of crucial information especially those with problem skin.
Sharon, thank you for your comment. I do agree with you on a couple of points. SLS and SLES are very used because they are very cheap and company therefore prefer them to other gentler but a bit more expensive surfactants. Also, I agree that they can be irritating and if you have serious skin problems like eczema and rosacea then it may be better to opt for other option.
However, I don’t believe that SLS and SLES are necessarily bad ingredients. They are getting lots of bad press lately which I think is undeserved, especially the fact they cause cancer which is just not true. They can also cause irritation but only to certain people. If you experience a negative reaction when using them, then of course you should avoid them. But if they work fine for you, then why not use them because they cause irritation to someone else?
In the end, though, I think that, just like every other ingredient, SLS and SLES have both pros and cons and aren’t for everyone.
I have done extensive research on SLS/SLES as in countless if not thousands of hours on these sulfates/detergents and just because a person is not have a reaction now, does not mean they won’t have a reaction later.
As mentioned previously I am an eczema sufferer however I should have mentioned it came from years of using bath bars that contain detergents which is what SLS/SLES is. Over time it stripped my skin due to the size of molecule and I can not go near anything with such ever again. If I had educated myself prior to becoming a soap maker I could have saved myself allot of misery.
At any rate I have no control over who buys what. I am educating on the immediate and possible long term use of using such. My buyers thank me all the time for educating them and many had no idea it was SLS/SLES that was causing their irritation no matter what store bought product they purchased.
Remember there are safer alternatives and I already mentioned molecular size has allot to do with irritation as well…There are no pros to these harsh ingredients for the buyer in the long run except it is really cheap and easily accessible.
Sharon, I understand where you are coming from and I’m really sorry it was SLS/SLES that gave you eczema. However, pretty much every ingredient can give someone a bad reaction after years of use. I know of people that used products with beeswax for years with no problems and then, several years later, they have become allergic to it and can’t go anywhere near products that contain it. Singleing out only SLS/SLES as bad is wrong imo.
I do agree that molecular size has a lot to do with it, but I think it is a concern more in leave in products (especially since there is no reason to use SLS/SLES in leave-in products in the first place). In rinse out products though, these ingredients are washed away and end up down the drain and only a very small amount may remain on hair/skin and for most people, unless they are very sensitive skin or any other serius skin problems, that’s not a problem.
I do think you are doing a great job at educating your consumers about the potential side effects of SLS/SLES, especially if they already have skin problems, but so far, judging from the scientific studies and journals I’ve read, I don’t think SLES is a problematic ingredient for most people. SLS instead is more irritating and should only be used in clarifying shampoo that one uses once every fortnight or so.
Personally, though I use both products with and without sulfates and they all work well for me. I just like to have choices really.
you have the SLS’ confused. Sodium Lauryl is the “non carcinogenic” and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (also know as Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate) IS the carginogenic ingredient.
When the Laureth one is found in cosmetics it it strongly monitored by the FDA and governments apporvals
Brie, as far as I know all sulfates used in beauty products aren’t carcinogenic. SLES is actually considered a safer choice than SLS because it is gentler and milder. Do you have any links to any website/study that states it causes cancer? I’d be very interested to see such studies if they exist, but I’ve never come across one yet.
There is a growing group of doctors who feel that the load of chemicals in the modern world, including sulfates are pushing children past some tipping point. Autistic Children are being referred to as the “canaries in the coal mine.” This is why I intend to avoid anything with sulfates for my family. We have just heard about this from a gastro-intestinal specialist. I have an autistic child and I am just not willing to take the risk for him or anyone in my family. If its showing up in our tissues, organs and brains do we really want to keep putting it on our body several times a day?
http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2004/06001/P0788_Abnormal_Sulfate_Metabolism_in_Autism.912.aspx
Miss D, thanks for bringing this to my attention and for the link. However, I’m still not convinced that sulfates in cosmetics are bad. The study you referred to shows the effects on the body when sulfates are ingested. The amounts in shampoos or other cosmetic products are miniscule and they aren’t ingested, just topically applied on the skin and there is no proof that used that way it has the same side effects. Especially when used in rinse off product and the sulfates are washed away and end up down the drain. I do understand though that in your situation you don’t wanna take any risks and avoid sulfates altogether and respect your decision.
Thanks for this positive article. It’s difficult sifting through the negative hype about SLES. I am an ENJO consultant selling products which allow people to clean their home and body with a cloth and just water. We also sell a few cleaners for stubborn grease and grime, one of which is called Marble Paste (love it!). One of it’s ingredients is SLES and I’ve been concerned I was selling something that is bad. I found your article very informative. Thank you for sharing it and staying involved with your replies to comments and concerns. Your time and efforts are greatly appreciated!
Debbie, thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed this article. And don’t worry, you’re not selling anything that’s bad. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of synthetic ingredients are receiving a lot of bad press at the moment, with everyone obsessing about natural products, but there just is no proof that SLES is bad for you.