Every year, thousands of skincare products are launched in the US market.  Wading through all of those products to find just the right one for you can be a daunting task indeed. The endless trial and error can waste a lot of time and money to say nothing of playing "amateur skin scientist" on your face while you figure out the right combinations of things that are both effective and non-irritating.

Unfortunately, US regulation on most things skincare isn’t that strict when it comes to ingredients, contraindications, safe percentages and so on. But thankfully, there are many brands and beauty retailers with a good conscience who have been self-imposing their own standards to make sure that what you put on your skin is as safe as possible. We salute those that endeavor to do the right thing for consumers.

So how can you know if a product is safe without spending an entire Sunday morning googling around to find the facts when you should be outside enjoying life?

Ingredient Websites Are A Good Place To Start?

There are quite a few well meaning, conscientious websites out there that rate ingredients and provide safety ranges, descriptions and other useful information.

When you search an ingredient, just be mindful of the following:

• The amount of an ingredient matters. Just because a website says an ingredient is “safe” does not mean that it is necessarily “safe” in the finished product. Take for instance, Glycolic Acid. Most sites will tell you that Glycolic Acid is relatively non-irritating and somewhat safe. They will talk about the molecule size and how effective it is at penetrating the skin. But what they cannot tell you is how it could be potentially harmful at various levels because it would be impossible to contemplate every concentration and product that exists. 10% Glycolic Acid could potentially be irritating and harmful for certain skin types, but 2% might be fine. So, it’s important to note that reading about an ingredient doesn’t give you the whole story.  You can read more about Glycolic Acid in this blog we created here.
• The rest of the ingredients in a formula may impact the one you are researching. Not all ingredients will play well in the sandbox together and there can be harmful contraindications from mixing. So just be cautious that another ingredient could impact the so called “safety” of another ingredient, especially as you mix different products. With so many potent ingredients out there and very little guidance about combining or layering, it’s no wonder that everyone’s skin is getting more sensitive and angry.

Do Clinical or Consumer Studies Indicate a Product is Safer?

Not necessarily.

In the broadest definition, a typical clinical skincare study is conducted on humans by scientific third parties to validate the claims of a product and assess its risk. There is no legal requirement for companies to do so, but if a company has dedicated resources to these studies, that is a sign that they are serious about your skin’s health.

That said, marketers are typically going to tell you what a clinically studied product DOES and not what it DOESN’T DO. Let’s take Retinol for example. Retinol is a gold standard ingredient for decreasing the appearance of fine lines, encouraging the formation of collagen and brightening the complexion. And you may see a Retinol product claims to do those things in a clinical study, but what you won’t see is how many people dropped out of the study due to irritation or redness. Or, how many people got redness and irritation and stayed in the study and also saw plumper skin. Two things can be true at the same time. Sometimes the most powerful products are potentially the most harmful when misused. Speaking of Retinol, we are not big believers. Gasp! Check out our Retinol blog post and the safer alternatives that we use in SKIN AT WORK here.

What About “Clean” Ingredients?

It’s amazing how the word “clean” has taken hold in the skincare marketing world. But, buyer beware, there is no government regulation that defines what clean is. So any brand or retailer can have their own definition of clean and you are none the wiser. Even though SKIN ATWORK is not sold at Credo, we consider them to have the strictest dirty list out there and all of our formulas are considered “Credo Clean." That said, most retailers are making great strides in protecting you from harmful ingredients and we really do respect everyone trying to make a difference in the absence of rules and regulations. Bottom line, just because someone says something is clean does not make it so. This is where the research comes in. But ugh, who has time for that? That’s why SKIN AT WORK is a big proponent of Seals and Certifications. Seals and Certs, if a brand chooses the best ones, will streamline your research and give you the confidence in knowing that a product is safer to use than others.

What is the S.A.F.E Seal?

Here at SKIN AT WORK, all of our products (including using them as a Duo) are proud to be the recipients of the S.A.F.E Seal which takes all of the formulation factors into consideration. The nice thing about this certification is that it takes all of the research time off your hands!

This 10-person, peer review approval panel consists of professionals from all aspects of the industry:

• 3 Dermatologists
• General Surgeon
• Toxicologist
• Microbiologist
• Pediatric Dermatologist
• Biostatistics expert
• Immunologist
• Oculoplastic Surgeon

Their full analysis looked at all of our third party data to come to this conclusion which included:

• Clinical Studies
• Ingredient Safety Documentation including concentrations that we use
• Consumer Research Data
• Packaging Safety
• Patch Testing Proof
• Good Laboratory Practices 

We take our mantra of “results without redness” very seriously and being awarded the S.A.F.E Seal which stands for SCIENTIFICALLY APPROVED FORMULA & EFFICACY is an honor. But more importantly than that, we hope that it demonstrates how much we care about you and your skin. We wouldn’t ask you to use anything we wouldn’t use ourselves.

For further reading, make sure to visit the Skincare Anarchy blog by Dr. Ekta!

Here's to your best skin!