What are you allergic to?

[SiR-ed8]

Despite not knowing a majority of vernacular, I've always a knack for reading ingredients whatever they may be from food, to toiletries and such.

What soap, aftershave or cologne ( if any ) caused adverse affects be it dry skin, redness or itchiness and the like?

One of these Doc Harris soaps-the Arlington as I recall did such. Those marked asterisk are unique identifiers. Reckon it has to be one or combination of these that cause my skin to flare. The other two soaps didn't cause ill-effects but only posted for comparison purposes. Terribly sorry bout the piss-poor quality.

Almond:

Potassium palmate, Sodium tallowate, Sodium palmate,

Sodium palm kernelate, Aqua, Potassium palm kernelate, Glycerin, Parfum,

*Prunus dulcis, Sodium chloride,

Petrolatum, Palm kernel acid,

*Limonene ( Arlington/Lavender ), *Amyl cinnamal,

Orthotolyl biguanide, Tetrasodium etidronate,

Pentasodium pentetate, Tetrasodium EDTA, CI 77891

Arlington

Potassium palmate, Sodium tallowate, Sodium palmate,

Sodium palm kernelate, Aqua, Potassium

palm kernelate, Glycerin, Parfum, Sodium chloride,

Petrolatum, Palm kernel acid, Orthotolyl biguanide,

Linalool, Limonene, *Farnesol, *Citral,

Tetrasodium etidronate, Pentasodium pentetate,

Tetrasodium EDTA, CI 77891


Lavender

Potassium palmate, Sodium tallowate, Sodium palmate,

Sodium palm kernelate, Aqua,

Potassium palm kernelate, Glycerin, Parfum, Linalool,

Sodium chloride, Petrolatum, Palm kernel acid, *Coumarin,

Orthotolyl biguanide, *Benzyl benzoate, Limonene,

Tetrasodium etidronate, Pentasodium pentetate,

Tetrasodium EDTA, CI 77891

 

[henkverhaar]

What soap, aftershave or cologne ( if any ) caused adverse affects be it dry skin, redness or itchiness and the like?

Dry skin is usually the result of a soap that is too 'effective', degreasing - which can be because it contains too much short chain fatty acids, such as those derived from coconut oil, or because someone has dryish skin to begin with, in which case they shouldn't be using (much) soap anyway. Redness can be either irritation (again, from short chain fatty acids, from pH, from additives, etc.) or allergy. Itching usually is a symptom of allergy, but can also be caused by normal irritation.

One of these Doc Harris soaps-the Arlington as I recall did such. Those marked asterisk are unique identifiers.
Almond:

Potassium palmate, Sodium tallowate, Sodium palmate,

Sodium palm kernelate, Aqua, Potassium palm kernelate, Glycerin, Parfum,

Soaps from palm oil, tallow and palm kernel oil (similar to coconut oil), water, glycerin (so far, ordinary soap), plus fragrance.

*Prunus dulcis, Sodium chloride,

Almond (doesn't say what from almond, but it could be almond oil or almond fragrance; my guess is almond oil, as emollient), and salt (to increase viscosity). If it is almond oil, it should not be allergenic.

Petrolatum, Palm kernel acid,

Petroleum jelly/vaseline, and palm kernel free fatty acids. Free fatty acids end up in soaps due to different processes, depending on the way the soap is manufactured. Traditionally, soaps are made by saponifying oils with lye. Enough lye saponifies all oils into soaps, too little lye leaves some oils intact, called 'superfatting'. If you want free fatty acids in your soap, you add some acid, like lactic acid, after the saponification has run its course. When making soap industrially, oils are saponified differently, usually with heat and steam, and split not in soaps and glycerin, but in free fatty acids and glycerin. Soaps are then made by adding lye to the free fatty acids, and if you add less lye than there are acids, you end up with some residual free fatty acids.

A good indication that soaps are made according to this last process is when the sodium/potassium ratio for individual oils differs. Here e.g. there is only sodium tallowate, but there is sodium and potassium palmate and palm kernelate, and the order is reversed between these two. Not possible if you are saponifying with lye.

*Limonene ( Arlington/Lavender ), *Amyl cinnamal,

These are not ingredients as such, but individual compounds in fragrances. For fragrances ('perfume'), there's no requirement to list what you put in, but you DO need to declare all individual substances in your fragrance components that are recognized allergens. So these are both allergens, and could be responsible for an adverse reaction.

Orthotolyl biguanide, Tetrasodium etidronate,

Preservative and 'ion catcher'

Pentasodium pentetate, Tetrasodium EDTA, CI 77891

Two more 'ion catchers', and a colourant - titanium dioxide, white, inert and harmless.

The ion catchers could, in principle, prevent calcium and magnesium from hard water from interfering with the soap molecules, but their concentration is too low for that -- they are most likely there to catch residual amounts of iron and other metal ions from the manufacturing process, that would otherwise stain the soap.

Henk

 

[hunnymonster]

Orthotolyl biguanide

Is that processed bird & bat shit (aka guano)? :mrgreen:

 

[huxley]

Lmao, i believe it's an antioxidant to keep the soap from going rancid

 

[hando]

Erasmic cream is the only one so far for me

some kind of coconut derivitive i think

 

[henkverhaar]

Orthotolyl biguanide

Is that processed bird & bat shit (aka guano)? :mrgreen:

Close. Look up orthoptera...

 

[JohnnyO]

Hi SirE, I'm okay with any soap I've tried so far, however my skin is always far more hydrated & just feels more soothed since I first moved onto glycerine based soaps.

Almost any alcohol content in an A/S brings my skin out in scarlet blotches & flare ups, however I've had a form of contact dermatitis for years, so I don't believe that I'm at all typical.

JohnnyO. :shave

 

[SoapAlchemist]

Sir Ed, I think it is very unlikely that any of the ingredients listed before 'parfum' are the culprits; because if you were one of those very rare people with a reaction to those, you would react to most soaps around.
So my bet is the amyl cinnamal, or the prunis dulcis.........
You could hunt out bars that have amyl cinnamal in them and see what happens - if it caused a reaction, you'ld know to avoid it in the future..

 

[heroblob]

Penicillin.

 

[SiR-ed8]

You guys are killin

Sir Ed, I think it is very unlikely that any of the ingredients listed before 'parfum' are the culprits; because if you were one of those very rare people with a reaction to those, you would react to most soaps around.
So my bet is the amyl cinnamal, or the prunis dulcis.........
You could hunt out bars that have amyl cinnamal in them and see what happens - if it caused a reaction, you'ld know to avoid it in the future..

Henk and Nanny thank you! When I started wetshaving I didn't know about artisan soaps and after my allergic reaction to Arlington, I looked into them.