Mineral oil -What is it and why stay away from it?

Mineral oil

When you first read the word «mineral oil» it doesn’t seem so bad? We have mineral makeup, and just plain old minerals, which are good for us. So what makes this oil so bad? Is it just a hype?

What is mineral oil?

Mineral oil is a distillate of petroleum. Yes, petroleum. MO (mineral oil) is used instead of animal- and vegetables oils, MO is much cheaper than pther oils, also in this sense, it’s a transparent, colorless oil composed mainly of alkanes and cyclic paraffins (related to petroleum jelly). The chemical ingredients is hydrogen and carbon, therefor it doesn’t interfere with the other ingredients in the product.

Where do you find mineral oil?

As described above, this oil is cheap. That is the main reason why so many products include MO. You’ll find it your skincare, makeup, lotions, mascara and shave foam. It’s not only the more reasonable brands that use MO, also exclusive brands, for instance La Mer use this oil.

I’ve said it before, and will say it again, always read the ingredients subscription. You’ll be in for a big suprise. Sometimes (many times) MO isn’t listed as «Mineral Oil», other names for MO is petrolatum, paraffinum liquidum, paraffin oil, polyisobutene, vasilin oil, oleum etc.

What are the downsides with mineral oil?

My first problem with MO, wasn’t all the stories about how bad it was for your health. It was the fact that when a product (especially) lotions have MO it didn’t absorb into my skin. AKA it didn’t work.

In high concentration MO can blocked up to 60% of your pores. This might be the reason why you’re bad skin. MO works as cellophane, the bad can’t get out and the good don’t get in.

It also makes it harder for the skin cells to renew themselfs. Some experts think that too much use of MO will cause diseases. I’m not a doctor, I don’t know if it’s true all the bad things they say about MO. What I do know, is that it doesn’t do anything good for my skin, so why use it?

Photos by: Pixabay