What is INCI?
Let’s find out together and see why it’s important to you and how to know it can improve your health and your skin. The shelves of large supermarkets, as far as body care is concerned, are also full of beauty products. As for the nutritional table of foods, there is also an indicative table for cosmetics. This table is called INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients), and it lists all the cosmetic products contained in that product according to the standard nomenclature.
Every cosmetic introduced on the market must exhibit its own INCI, and the ingredients used to produce that product must be written in descending order of concentration at the time of their incorporation. A study commissioned some time ago by a well-known chain of beauty products revealed that women use about 515 chemical agents a day for the care of their body, many of which prove to be harmful to human health.
But how do you figure out which substances can be harmful to your body?
Well, reading the INCI present on every product sold on the market, it is possible to understand which products are dangerous according to whether they are classified with green dots (good product), yellow dots (mediocre product, it would be better to limit their use) or red ball product to be avoided.
A large number of substances classified with red dot in the hybridization, and therefore to be considered harmful, are widely used by cosmetic houses. Many of these substances are also placed on the lists of the European directive, and classified as carcinogenic. A first example is that of petrolatum, components of most shampoos, conditioners, face / body creams and foundations.
INCI: petrolatum – paraffin liquid – Vaseline – mineral oil
These substances are obtained by refining and / or processing of oil, and have recently been included in the European directive among second-class carcinogens. The major American dermatologists have always affirmed their healthiness, above all with regard to their phantom hydrating power.
The hydrating power of petrolatum’s, mainly paraffin, would be to create a real barrier between the skin and the external environment. In reality the barrier created, being foreign to the molecules of the epidermis, is not natural and as such does not allow the breathing of the skin.
In this way the germs that are naturally present on the epidermis remain trapped by the oil layer, thus causing irritation and favoring facial imperfections especially acne, especially on already prepared skins.
Another category that should not be underestimated is that of silicone, powerful solvents. They create an invisible film on the skin or hair, as they are especially contained in shampoos, conditioners and face creams, giving a pleasant texture to the touch and the sight.
Skin and hair will be immediately softer and more hydrated, but this sensation is distorted, because to be soft will not be the hair / skin, but the silicon film that has coated them. Once you stop using these substances the skin returns as before, in fact in most cases it appears visibly worse, dry and dehydrated.
Their function is not in fact to hydrate, having no active function, being synthetic and not biodegradable. In the INCI the silicone are recognizable in all those substances that end up in one, thickness or Sloane.
Equally harmful are the sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) and the sodium laureate sulfate (SLES), attractants, contained above all in shampoos, liquid soaps, shower gel etc. These substances are mostly attractants (substances that have the property of increasing the attainability of the surfaces.
Which in the long run can be harmful to the skin and in some cases damage the follicle. Among these two substances, the most harmful is sodium laurel sulfate. It alters the natural film of the skin, and consequently its natural PH.
These sensitivities are mostly present in cosmetics, in detergents such as shampoo, shower gel, intimate cleanser, liquid soap, cleansing gel and so on.
Finally, we cannot fail to mention the harmful parables, preservatives of chemical origin, called estrogen or “hormonal destroyers”. They are foreign to the body and capable of imitating estrogen, female hormones.
