Five Beauty Products You Should Avoid and What to Replace Them With

Walnut Shells
Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

One of the things we love about beauty products is that many companies strive to invent and innovate, putting money back into researching the best and newest ingredients to use on your skin. With new discoveries comes the realisation that some old methods should be left in the past, and with that in mind, we’re talking about five products that you should avoid using on your skin in 2019.

Walnut Scrubs

Exfoliation is a key step towards healthy skin, but we now know that harsh physical exfoliants like walnut shell in face scrubs can cause damage to the skin. These microtears leave you open to scarring and infection and can have a horrible effect with years of use. Instead, use a product like Elemis Superfood Blackcurrant Jelly Exfoliator, which provides gentle exfoliation using fruit extracts.

Soaps

Whether it be your face or your body, soap should be well and truly banned from your bathroom! Soap may make your skin feel clean, but it strips the skin of its natural oils and dehydrates your face and body with every use. Instead, opt for a soap-free body crème such as Dermalogica Conditioning Body Wash and a soap-free facial cleanser like Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel to protect the delicate balance of your skin.

Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLS)

Sodium Laureth Sulphate (or SLS) is the ingredient added to many bathroom products to give them the foamy effect, but it’s also known to be a skin irritant. It can strip the skin of its natural oils which can cause dry skin, irritation and reactions. Elemis products all come with a NO SLS guarantee, so you can be sure that you won’t be using any of this nasty stuff if you opt for their products.

Formaldehyde

Yes, you read that right; formaldehyde is a common preservative used in many beauty products and it’s the very same formaldehyde that’s used for embalming bodies! It’s most commonly found in nail polish where it’s used as a hardening agent, however if you choose your nail polishes from the range of Orly products that we stock, you’ll find that each polish is produced without any formaldehyde, or other unpleasant ingredients like parabens, ethyl tosylamide or xylene.

Alcohol

Don’t panic, we aren’t telling you to put down your wine glass (although that’s a conversation for a different blog post!) – many cheap facial cleansers contain alcohol because it’s a low-cost way of getting dirt off of your skin. Sure, it cleans your face, but it also destroys your skin’s natural oil and pH balance. Gentle cleansers like Dermalogica Soothing Eye Make Up Remover provide excellent cleansing without the use of alcohol or oils, maintaining a healthy complexion.

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