You can see everywhere a warning to avoid a sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate, commonly called SLS and SLES, in your cosmetics.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)
Both come from the sulfate family as the names suggest. In the simplest words, we can say they are the detergents.
You can find them in almost all of your cosmetic products. SLS and SLES have very good washing and foaming properties. This is why they’re so common.
But are they really harmful to our skin, if they have such good advantages for cleaning?
Scientists are still investigating the effects, but there are some proven facts.
Due to their strong cleansing properties, they damage the lipid layer. It means they don’t remove just the dirt and sweat, but also the fat which protects our skin from dryness. It also changes the Ph levels from acidic to alkaline. The skin loses its protective function and apart from dryness, its easier to irritate. Another problem may be an increased amount of sebum because the skin will start to protect against dryness and cause the skin to be oilier.
Be very careful especially when your skin is sensitive or dry, because the side effects may be worse.
If you decide to stop using cosmetics with SLS and SLES check your cosmetics labels and look also for their aliases in the list of names below:
Sodium N-dodecyl sulfate,
Lauryl sulfate sodium salt,
Look for the cosmetics, which contain the below alternative cleaning ingredients. (We will describe them soon, so check for the update).