Ingredient Spotlight! Sodium Lauryl and Laureth Sulfates

It's here! The first ingredient spotlight post! I have had many clients asking about these two ingredients/chemicals. I'll be breaking it down into a (hopefully) easy to digest format.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)

What it does: A foaming agent (surfactant) found most commonly in shampoo, face and body washes. Also found in some toothpastes.

Concerns raised: That both SLS and SLES are irritants and possible carcinogens, through a by-product (1, 4 Dioxane), that occurs in some production methods.

What I've Found: SLS and SLES are skin irritants.(1) (2) I have not been able to find any study that substantiates the cancer risk in SLES. It has not been listed as carcinogenic by OSHA on their material safety data sheets (3), by the American Cancer Society,  or the International Agency for Research in Cancer.

Bottom line: I don't use products with SLS or SLES. Being on a constant crusade to lower inflammation in the skin, I see no need to start off with a cleanser that may cause irritation, even if in a formulation made to buffer that (too much inflammation being the source of all evil....don't get me started). We have other options. The cancer risk? From what I've read- I'm not concerned about the risk. With that said- the point is moot since I don't use it in my practice.

Want to see something featured in the ingredient spotlight or have questions? Email me jill@jjodar.com or leave a comment!

What's In A Title?

Fair warning: soapbox post! So I was getting my next post ready, when I came across an article from iflscience.com.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/herbal-supplements-dont-contain-what-they-claim

Although not about skin care products, it struck a chord with me (translation: I got really mad). It underscores the importance my previous post about language and semantics when we are discussing an issue, or passing on information. The heated, (and sometimes hard to stomach) battle going on in the comments section on Facebook, also seems to mirror the combativeness and polarizing that occurs between different product manufacturers, with different philosophies in skincare. I usually love iflscience.com (including their irreverent name), so I was really disappointed. I had to write about it.

The title reads: "Herbal Supplements Don't Contain What They Claim"

Wait.....What? ALL herbal supplements? EVERY kind? From every company? Big? Small? Organic? Mainstream? Specialty? Says who? (I'll stop.)

In reality, no, just a misleading title. Four large companies did get busted and received cease and desist letters from the FDA. Read the letters here. But you wouldn't know this unless you read the article in it's entirety. The title makes a very inappropriate blanket statement. And let's be honest, the title is as far as most people get.

Disclaimer: I do use herbal supplements religiously. I'm no specialist on herbs, but I see an amazing functional medicine practitioner/acupuncturist who IS an expert, and I trust him implicitly with what I put in my body. I know for a fact he has done exhaustive research and carefully chosen companies that batch-test for purity, and are sticklers for formulation. So to throw all those reputable companies and the people that use them under the bus? Frustrating, unjust, and not factual. Read carefully, thoroughly, and always beyond the title!

Have you read something that freaked you out about your products? Let me know, I'm happy to give you my take. You can always email jill@jjodar.com, or leave it in the comments section.

Rant is concluded. Now I'll get back to your originally scheduled post- Sulfates in the Ingredient Spotlight up next!

Skin Care Hack: Tinted Sunscreen

Happy New Year to all!! I hope 2015 is treating you well. This one's a quicky! 


I have been looking into some new suncare products to bring into my practice and found myself still frustrated by the options for "tinted sunscreen". This is a product with enough coverage to even out the skin a bit – but not as heavy as makeup – and your sun protection is included. In theory, what a great idea right? Unfortunately, I've found there are 2 problems:

• Clients actually use the product like a foundation or concealer and "dab" as opposed to applying an amount significant enough to ensure the listed spf.

• The bigger problem – the tints available seem to exclude a huge range of skin tones! It's hard to justify bringing a product on board that will only be an option to some of the many, many skin tones I treat.

So here's the easy fix. I have been doing this myself for years! Simply add a very small amount of your favorite concealer/liquid foundation into your daily portion of sunscreen and blend in the palm of your hand. I'm talking about a dab here, so not enough to change the spf coverage when applied. This works best when blended into a sunscreen specially formulated for your face. (Wondering if you need a special sunscreen for your face? Click here.) In about 2 seconds, you've got a custom blended tinted sunscreen. Works like a charm.

Your Skin Is Amazing!

I was sorting through a list of questions and topics for my year-end post when I realized something. Our focus, in the treatment room and out, is so often on what is wrong with our skin: what we want to change, to fix, to stop, or to improve.

I think we all (myself included), can lose sight of what an amazing thing our skin is, and what extraordinary functions it performs daily. My own personal struggle with psoriasis, has often left me with a less than healthy respect for my skin. So my end of year post is just a little reminder of how great our skin is, even when it’s not perfect.

• Your skin is the body’s largest organ. The average square inch (6.5 cm²) of skin holds 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes, and more than 1,000 nerve endings.(That’s in ONE square inch!!). 
• It’s virtually waterproof, renews itself, and helps control your body temperature. 
• It’s an amazing communicator and protector. 
• It’s also a very valuable outward reflection of what’s happening elsewhere in our body. It works tirelessly to repair itself, and we can help, if we’re listening.

Your skin is amazing!! Remember that.

Happy New Year! See you in 2015….

Dark Circles and Sunscreen in the Eye Area

It’s a Q & A post today with a great question from Anita C.!

“When I was first learning to take care of my skin as a teenager, it seemed that conventional wisdom held that you shouldn't use sunscreen on the lower or upper eyelids, and that the only product that should go near eyes would be a specially formulated eye cream, and even then only along the crows-foot area, not the delicate lids. 

But recently I was reading a story about how to minimize dark circles that recommended SPF moisturizer as one of the key steps for helping eliminate stubborn under-eye darkness.  

Which is right?“

I love this question because it actually hits on 3 separate topics; dark circles, the use of sunscreen to reduce them, and if it's safe to put product in the eye area.

Where do dark circles come from? In general, there’s two causes. The first is an excess of pigment produced in the under-eye area, which usually shows as a brown or even blackish color, and is much more common in darker skin tones. The other is due to a thinning of the (already thinner) skin under the eye and is actually the vascular system showing through the skin. This type is more bluish in color, and more common to fairer skin tones.

So you’ve got dark circles...will a sunscreen or moisturizer with spf help? Yes, if used carefully and correctly. Why? If the case of under-eye darkness due to pigment, contact with UV rays will cause the pigment to darken up, the same as the rest of skin would anywhere else on the face or body. Sunscreen will help to protect against that. How would it help in the case of “thinning” skin? Free-radical damage from the sun can exacerbate collagen and elastin loss that occurs with age. Sunscreen allows your skin to essentially “focus on something else” and not battle the free radicals from UV light that can accelerate a thinner more fragile appearance.

Now to Anita’s question- can you put sunscreen, or anything else for that matter in the eye area?

There have been great advances in formulation and many great (and safe) products for the eye area, including some with a sunscreen. So, yes, I believe many people can safely use products in the eye area (brow-bone included). But it is, as always, on a case-by-case basis.

Here are some rules to go by:

• Only use products in the eye area that have been opthamologist tested.
• Use your bone structure as a guide and tap product on in a circle, around brow bone and under- eye area, but avoid the lower portion of the lid directly over the eyeball.
• Common sense caution:  if you have allergies to ingredients, or if you suffer from seasonal allergies, always do a patch test first, not in eye area, and then do a small test area on one eye before applying a new product all over.
• Remember that products do migrate a bit so never apply anything very close to the lashes.

Thanks again for the great question Anita! I'll have one more post in 2014, and I look forward to more questions in 2015! Hope you are all enjoying the Holidays with friends and family.