“Sensitive” cosmetics: care for sensitive skin

Shampoos, creams and lotions with the addition “sensitive” promise to protect sensitive skin in particular. We explain exactly what that means, for whom it is the right thing and what to look for when buying. We also have tips on where to find recommended products.

Many people are currently experiencing corona-related hand washing to find that their skin becomes dry and tight. Others have been struggling with sensitive skin, allergies or skin diseases and looking for the right care for a long time – for them, frequent hand washing is particularly problematic.

Because washing hands less often is not an option at the moment, it is now a question of choosing the right products to clean and care for the skin.

When looking for soaps, hand creams or lotions that protect the skin, you quickly come across “Sensitive” products. Such care products usually promise to be particularly well suited for “sensitive skin” or “for allergic skin”. What’s behind it?

“Sensitive” cosmetics: what is it?

Unfortunately, we cannot answer exactly what is (or not) in products that are labeled with the term “sensitive” or comparable information: The term is not clearly regulated.

“Unfortunately offers […] the claim “sensitive” no certainty regarding the tolerance of the cosmetic products “,

also criticizes the German Allergy and Asthma Association (daab).

Eco test asked some of the largest cosmetics companies in 2019 what they mean by “sensitive”: “Answers point to mild care and products for consumers who are prone to skin irritation; products with as few ingredients as possible or with products that are known to irritate the skin as little as possible. “

In general, products advertised as “sensitive” should gently clean or care for sensitive skin. This often means that certain fragrances and preservatives, which are considered to be common triggers of allergies, are dispensed with (details see below).

Sensitive skin: who needs sensitive cosmetics?

“In principle, sensitive products make sense for all people with sensitive skin,” says Munich dermatologist Dr. Christoph Liebich in conversation with Utopia.

He explains: “Sensitive cosmetics also make sense for people with skin diseases, allergies, psoriasis and so on and with allergies to certain ingredients.” In these cases, however, we recommend that you seek medical advice.

For babies and children, you should generally use cleaning and care products that are free of fragrances, allergenic preservatives and dyes, aggressive surfactants and other skin-irritating ingredients.

Look closely: this is what you should pay attention to in the case of “sensitive” products

Logically, the special products are particularly useful if they are “real” sensitive products, says dermatologist Dr. Liebich: “That means if they contain little or no preservatives if possible and do without fragrances and unnecessary dyes.” In other words:

“They should only contain what is necessary for their function to be performed.”

It is not necessary to use expensive pharmacy products; good sensitive cosmetics are also available in retail stores. In case of doubt, the product can be shown to the dermatologist, says Liebich.

In 2019, Öko-Test found most of the “Sensitive” products tested to be “good” or “very good”. However, the laboratory found questionable PEG / PEG derivatives in some products, which can make the skin more permeable to pollutants – especially problematic for people with sensitive skin. Some products contained petroleum-based ingredients. It was also shown that not all “sensitive” products are fragrance-free, as one might suspect.

We looked around the drugstore and found that by no means all of the cosmetics advertised as “sensitive” are free of potentially questionable ingredients such as fragrances. Also known to be allergenic preservatives, dyes and other ingredients as well as skin-irritating surfactants are found in “Sensitive” products.

The only thing that remains is to carefully study the ingredient lists of all cosmetics and care products.

Sensitive skin? These ingredients should not be in your care products

Because everyone is different, there is no general rule about who can tolerate which material and which does not. If you have really sensitive skin or even skin diseases, you are well advised to avoid at least those ingredients that are known to have a high allergy potential or are particularly irritating to the skin.

So that you can put the fabrics directly on the List of ingredients of cosmetics, we also name the INCI name where necessary (= the name given on the product):

• Preservatives: As a frequent contact allergens among the preservatives called the daab inter alia, Methylisothiazolinone, Methylchlorisothiazolinone, Benzisothiazolinone, Octylisothiazolinone, parabens and formaldehyde and formaldehyde donors (INCI example Benzylhemiformal, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol, 5-bromo-2-nitro -1,3-dioxanes, diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, Quaterniu-15, DMDM ​​hydantoin, sodium hydroxymethylglycine, methamine)
• Fragrances: 26 fragrances are considered particularly suspicious in relation to allergies and must be explicitly stated on the cosmetic packaging. All others are usually summarized under the term “perfume” – it is best to avoid that.
• Also a few essential oils can irritate the skin, e.g. Oils from ylang-ylang, clove, oak moss, jasmine and sandalwood. The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) has detailed lists with the INCI names of potentially allergenic fragrances (including essential oils).
• Dyes: Above all, some so-called azo dyes (INCI e.g. p-phenylenediamine, Toluene-2,5-diamines) are considered carcinogenic and allergy-causing. According to INCI, most dyes can be recognized by the abbreviation CI plus a number.
• Other common allergens (based on the exclusion criteria of the association daab, see below): lanolin (Wool wax) & Lanolin alcohol, Rosin, Propolis cera (Bees resin), chamomile (INCI: Chamomilla Recutita Flower Extract), Benzophenone-3, Cetylstearyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol (INCI: Cetearyl alcohol)
• Surfactants: As a further questionable ingredient for people with sensitive skin, daab mentions the surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate (INCI: sodium lauryl sulfate), which can irritate the skin.
• Petroleum products are less optimal because of their lack of skin care properties than because of their lack of care properties: they can lie on the skin like a film and “seal” it without really caring for it. This can even dry out the skin in the long term.

Natural cosmetics are often better for sensitive skin

Unfortunately, it is a fallacy that natural cosmetics are fundamentally more skin-friendly – even high-quality, certified natural cosmetics can contain critical fragrances, essential oils or other skin-irritating ingredients. However, at least no petroleum-based substances, synthetic preservatives, plastics or aggressive surfactants are used.

In addition, natural cosmetics are generally more environmentally friendly – in production and in use. In the ideal case, we advise you to use “sensitive” products with natural cosmetics certification – and still always critically check the list of ingredients.

Leaderboard: The best natural cosmetics manufacturers

• 1st placei + m natural cosmetics

  5.0

  5

  detailBioNaturel **

• place 2Lavera

  5.0

  5

  DetailAvocadostore **

• place 3Dr. Hauschka

  4.7

  6

  detailDr. Hauschka **

• 4th placeAlverde

  3.3

  6

  detailAmazon **

• 5th placeSante

  2.0

  12

  detailBioNaturel **

• Rank 6Logona

  1.5

  8th

  detailBioNaturel **

• 7th placeSpeick

  5.0

  3rd

  DetailAvocadostore **

• 8th placePrimavera

  5.0

  2nd

  DetailAvocadostore **

• 9th placeAlterra

  4.3

  4th

  detail

• Place 10Benecos

  4.3

  4th

  DetailAvocadostore **

• 11th placeFarfalla

  4.5

  2nd

  DetailAvocadostore **

• 12th placeBio tower

  5.0

  1

  detailBioNaturel **

Buy sensitive products: recommended shops and brands

People with sensitive skin can find good sensitive cosmetics in every drugstore. You can also get them in many organic shops, health food stores and of course pharmacies. Some online shops also offer recommended sensitive products.

Online shops

• PureNature** has specialized in the most natural possible allergy products, all natural cosmetic products are free of fragrances.
• At the natural cosmetics online shop Ecco Verde** can be filtered by categories such as “sensitive skin” and “unscented”.
• In Online pharmacies** (e.g. www.shop-apotheke.com, DocMorris, www.zurrose.de) you can also filter for products for allergic or sensitive skin.

Natural cosmetics brands

• Dr. Hauschka** has a small medical range.
• i + m natural cosmetics: “Freestyle Sensitive” series (online e.g. at Ecco Verde** and BioNaturel** available)
• Lavera: “Neutral” care series (online e.g. at Ecco Verde** and BioNaturel** available)
• Eubiona: “Sensitive” care series (online e.g. at BigGreenSmile** and Rewe** available)
• Urtekram: “No Perfume” and “No Perfume Baby” care series (online e.g. at Ecco Verde** and BioNaturel** available)
• CMD: “Neutral” care series (online e.g. at Ecco Verde**, memo** and Amazon** available)
• Logona: “Pure” care series (online e.g. at Ecco Verde** and BioNaturel** available)

Recognize skin-friendly products: notes, seals and labels

Caution: All markings, labels and seals can only provide orientation and cannot replace a close look at the list of ingredients. Firstly, the criteria are sometimes vague and secondly, no label, no matter how well-meant, can rule out that there are users of the products who are sensitive to one or the other substance.

• Quite a few say clues like “dermatologically tested” or “Dermatologically tested” out. There are no fixed rules for such notices – in principle any manufacturer can use them. The same applies to notices such as “ophthalmologically tested“.

• “Clinically tested” or “clinically tested” means a little more: The product was tested on test persons under the supervision of medical personnel, but the note does not provide any information about the test result or the composition of the product.

• Also the hint “Hypoallergenic” is not legally regulated and does not require any specific criteria.

• The Institute Dermatest conducts skin tolerance tests on behalf of cosmetic companies. Labels like about “Dermatest very good” stand for the fact that the products were tested on a certain number of test persons under certain conditions and were well tolerated. However, they say nothing about the composition of the product.

• The label “Recommended by Deutsche Haut- und Allergiehilfe e.V.” can be found on some care products which, according to the association, “have been examined for their tolerance for skin patients and allergy sufferers and have been positively evaluated by independent experts”. There is no exclusion list for ingredients. For some products, the list of ingredients includes fragrances and other irritating substances.

• That is rather rare with us ECARF seal (“Allergy friendly, quality checked”) is awarded by the European Foundation for Allergy Research. It checks the product composition, the products are tested on test subjects. They must not contain “irritating ingredients above their respective thresholds”. However, only the 26 particularly allergenic fragrances and some preservatives are excluded.

• The label of the daab (“tested and recommended daab German allergy and asthma association”) has stricter ingredient exclusion criteria. The products must include be free of any fragrances, preservatives and dyes that are known as allergens (e.g. formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers, parabens, MCI / MI (chlorine) methylisothiazolinone, azo dyes) as well as other allergenic ingredients such as lanolin, rosin, benzophenone 3 and the skin-irritating surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate (click here for Criteria catalog).

Sensitive skin: what else you can do

• On a Skin type-appropriate care respect, think highly of
• Shower as short as possible
• Don’t shower too often
• Don’t shower too hot
• avoid stress

• Eat a balanced diet (eat lots of fruits and vegetables)

• Drink plenty of water
• Do not change cosmetic and care products too often
• Do not use too many different cosmetic and care products
• Care for hands and body regularly with a well-tolerated cream / lotion
• Tip for particularly irritated skin on the hands: Apply a cream rich in fat in the evening and wear thin cotton gloves overnight (available in the drugstore). For more tips: Dry hands: home remedies

Important: If your skin is irritated, reddened, or itchy very often, if you get rashes or other skin problems, get a medical attention. Some skin diseases require treatment with special medication or creams – and dermatologists can also advise you on the right care for your skin.

Read more on Techzle.com:

• Dry skin: the best natural home remedies
• The worst ingredients in cosmetic products
• Wash more sustainably: 5 recommended eco detergents