A lot of us are now actually reading the ingredients list and trying to make out if what we are using on our skin may actually be harmful to our health.

However, there are some of us that are still slightly confused. We may look at the ingredients list and we may recognize the odd ingredient which does not look right such as alcohol, but we do not really understand much about anything else.

So if you are having problems knowing which ingredient to mainly look out for, then Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is the one you should start with.

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate:

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is one of the most common chemicals included in our skin care products. It is basically an inexpensive detergent which is commonly used in bubble baths, cosmetic cleansers, shampoos and shower gels. It is by far one of the most dangerous ingredients within our skin care products, yet many people simply do not realize the dangers it does pose.

As well as in our cosmetic products, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is also contained within household cleaners such as garage floor cleaners, car wash soaps, and engine degreasers. It is extremely corrosive and it attacks greasy surfaces. So how does it end up in our skin care products?

Another thing many people do not know about this ingredient, is that it is used in so many laboratories around the world as a skin irritant. It is used on both humans and animals in order to test new healing agents and how well they perform on irritated skin. So if it is used as a skin irritant how can it possibly be any good for us in our cosmetics?

The Problems it can cause:

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate can cause many different problems including hair loss. It attacks the hair follicle and it also eats away at the skin protection, and often causes rashes to occur. This is most common in bubble baths where the ingredient is classified as a drug.

It damages the skin by cleaning through corrosion and it strips protective lipids from the skin causing it to dry up. The most worrying thing we should think about however is that Sodium Lauryl Sulphate reacts with some other ingredients in our skin care products, and it forms nitrates. These are potential cancer causing carcinogenics.

Large amount of these carcinogenics are absorbed through the skin which is extremely dangerous to our health. Many experts will argue that there are not enough amounts of Sodium Lauryl Sulphate in our skin care products to be able to harm our health; however studies have shown that there is a risk and often it is a very high one!

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is often found in many Mascaras and it has been known to irritate the eyes. So, if you do seem to have a reaction when you use a certain mascara, check their ingredients to see whether they contain Sodium Lauryl Sulphate and if they have, discontinue using them as soon as possible!

If you do keep on using a mascara which has the ingredient in, you could potentially end up causing permanent damage to your eyes, so it is always better to be safe than sorry!

Overall there are many chemicals we need to be aware of in our skin care; however Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is definitely one of the worst.

The fact that it is also used in tough cleaners such as car wash soap and as floor cleaners is worrying and it just shows that you can never be too careful when it comes to skin care products!