3.28.2010

Salicylic acid: What does it do for your skin?




If you check the ingredients list on many of your favorite and most effective acne treatments and face washes, you'll find an ingredient that tops almost every list.  Salicylic acid, a weaker beta-hydroxy acid, is fantastic for getting rid of many troubling skin conditions because of it's natural ability to hasten and replenish the desquamation process. This process is the natural way in which your skin cells are "sloughed away and replaced." (Need more information about what desquamation is and how it works? Read here and here.)

When your skin has a lot of trouble healing and / or recovering from bad bouts of acne, you probably have a problem with your skin's desquamation process.  This means that the rate at which your skin should be replenishing itself is either too slow, or could possibly not even be happening if you keep piling on products like heavy or thick cosmetics.

Salicylic acid, a lovely extract from willow bark and other completely natural and green sources, is not only the way we get rid of acne, oily skin, and blotch problems.  Salicylic acid is also how we create something great for our bodies AND skin -- aspirin!  (Remember aspirin face masks?  Bring them back, cause they work!  Try this video from Michelle Phan, and this article from yours truly. )

"Products that use salicylic acid normally boast the ability to help cure (or completely cure) cases of mild acne, dandruff, and psoriasis, among others. Since it is extracted from willow bark, salicylic acid is considered an organic ingredient in many aspects and is a key ingredient in many natural skincare products, as well as shampoos, conditioners, and acne-friendly moisturizing products as well. When this ingredient was extracted at first, it was used to help ease pain of injury and illness, giving us what aspirin is today. Aspirin is made by utilizing a reaction that occurs within salicylic acid, so using aspirin based recipes for your skin can also greatly improve an existing condition like acne..."
 (Read more of this article on salicylic acid and your desquamation process here.)


Looking for some products that contain salicylic acid?  Here are a few you may already be familiar with:

Neutrogena Acne Rapid Clear Daily Treatment Pads
Olay 7 in 1 Anti-Aging Salicylic Acid Acne Cleanser
St Ives Swiss Formula Medicated Apricot Scrub
Psoriasil Body Wash from Tao of Herbs


As always, there are people that have sensitivities and reactions to certain beta-hydroxy acids.  Make sure you check with your dermatologist if you have any serious skin conditions before you start a skincare regimen using products heavy in salicylic acid.

I hope this helped out! webcake xoxo

1 comments:

Lady Blue said...

I really did check all my ingredients lists, and salicylic acid really is on all of them but one. The one that doesn't have it is a store brand SPF15 moisturizer so I guess that makes sense! =P

Post a Comment

 

Blog Template by YummyLolly.com - Header made with PS brushes by gvalkyrie.deviantart.com
Sponsored by Free Web Space