Five Strange Skin Care Ingredients for Beautiful Skin
Activated Charcoal? Yeast? Slime Mucus? Sure they sound strange but when it comes to taking care of your skin, they are some of the most sought after ingredients.
Five Strange Skin Care Ingredients for Beautiful Skin
The pursuit of beautiful skin is never-ending, and with the global skincare routine craze not showing any signs of dying down, beauty companies are creating more and more products for healthy and radiant skin.
Before you douse your skin again, it might benefit you to read about some of the ingredients that are in that bar of soap or that bottle of serum. Some of the ingredients might seem bizarre and ones that you would never think about putting on your body and face!
Here are some of them:
01 Activated Charcoal (Carbon)
In the field of medicine, activated charcoal is used in poisoning cases, where a large dose is fed to the patient to absorb poisons from the body before they can enter the bloodstream. In the field of beauty, it is becoming one of the trendiest skincare ingredients for its toxin-absorbing, oil-napping, and dirt-grabbing uses. It contains natural properties that act like a magnet, drawing impurities such as make-up and dirt out from the skin’s surface. Benefits of charcoal include a balanced oil production and an increase in skin’s radiance over time.
02 Yeast (Beta Glucan)
It may be more popularly known as the ingredient used to make bread rise, but yeast is also used in skincare products for its fibroblasts — a cell type that generates collagen. It is said that yeast is “like the fountain of youth” and it may just be that. It does everything from firming skin to calming irritation to correcting hyperpigmentation, all thanks to its antioxidants, B vitamins, proteins and minerals.
03 Slime Mucus (Mucin)
Don’t just write off the slime that snails secrete as gross. Mucin, which can be found in a snail’s mucus, has significant protective and nourishing qualities that beauty and skincare brands are now using for serums and facial essences. It’s effective in reducing the effects of photoaging, smoothing out scars, and stimulating collagen thanks to its chock-full of elastin and glycolic acid.
04 Sheep Sebum (Lanolin)
Just like the human body produces sebum that coats, moisturizes, and protects human skin, a sheep’s wool produces lanolin that soothes, heals, and moisturizes sheep’s skin. According to Liveabout.com, the lanolin is extracted from the wool after the sheep are sheared; then, it is refined and purified before being used in products such as lip and body lotions, balms, butters and creams.
05 Bone Marrow (Glucosamine)
You read that right. According to Dermstore.com, the oil found in bone marrow is flush with beneficial acids and anti-inflammatory properties. Used in face creams and moisturizers, glucosamine penetrates the skin easily and forms a protective barrier that keeps the nourishing moisture in. It even helps to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Next time you are ready to purchase a skin-care product, look at the list of ingredients and search out where they are from and what they do. You might be surprised.
(Thanks to Balikbayan Magazine for parts of this content)
Michael A. Carrubba
Founder/Allie’s Naturals LLC
