Cosmetic Ingredient: Octocrylene

I saw this one on a bottle in my bathroom and tried to guess what it was, but failed miserably.  After looking up what it was I was surprised to learn that it’s also a common ingredient in quite a few of Oil of Olay’s best selling products.

 Other names you’ll find on cosmetic labels: 2-Cyano-3, 3-Diphenyl Acrylic Acid, 2-Ethylhexyl 2-Cyano-3, UV Absorber-3, 2Propenoic Acid, Octocrilene, 3-Diphenylacrylate, amongst many others.

Purpose in cosmetics: UV Absorber (to raise the SPF of a product).

 Octocrylene is categorized as a photosensitizer, so while it may absorb UV rays & reduce skin damage in one way, it also increases your skins sensitivity to light which causes the production of free radicals when exposed to light (which is what we do when we put on sunscreen!).  A higher concentration of free radicals in the skin puts you at risk of DNA damage (various cancers to be more precise).  Melanoma Cancer in sunscreen users has often been attributed to Octocrylene, especially since non-users have comparatively fewer cases of the disease.

This entry was posted on 30. April 2009 at 05:03 and is filed under Buyer beware!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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