NO MORE CETAPHIL OR CERAVE!
WHY are doctors still recommending Cetaphil and CeraVe? Please just stop already!!
As an esthetician, I see MANY clients with sensitive skin that come in and say their doctor referred them to Cerave and/or Cetaphil products for their sensitive skin. This is just baffling to me. The top ingredient in most of their products is alcohol. Because alcohol evaporates so fast, it dries the skin further, can irritate the skin and exaserbate eczema, Rosacea and other sensitive skin conditions including acne.
Cetaphil products contain very few ingredients but many are detrimental to skin AND your health! Their products contain several parabens, which have been scientifically proven (see proof below) to be easily absorbed into the skin, disrupt the endocrine system and mimic estrogen and increase your chance of developing breast cancer among other things. Parabens are to be avoided at all costs and their products are packed with them. Not to mention if you already have sensitive skin, your protective barrier and micro biome is probably already not working to protect you, so these detrimental ingredients are readily being absorbed by your skin.
Cerave products are only slightly better in that they actually contain one or two beneficial ingredients to help the skin and have less alcohol, but they have several parabens in their products as well. If you have a skin issue that needs addressing though (acne, dry skin, redness, rosacea, melasma,etc), they don’t contain a sufficient amount of active ingredients to reverse or relieve issues. In their acne products, the active ingredient is benzoyl peroxide, which can help acne in the short-term by drying out the skin, but causes a vicious cycle of over-dry to oily skin and can actually cause more acne and acne scarring in the long run. It also harms your skin’s ability to protect itself from pollution and bacteria because your natural healthy bacteria can’t survive in that environment.
As if cancer causing ingredients aren’t enough to stop using these products, the skin can also become sensitized to products containing parabens, which results in irritation. They also cause pre-term births, shorter menstural cycles that result in infertility and they are detrimental to Earth’s environment. (See articles at the bottom) The man made preservative is not something the body happily accepts.
These product companies have mastered a marketing plan to deceive the public and doctors have fallen prey to the hype. It’s infuriating to estheticians, because we see what the aftermath of chronic use of poor products does to the skin. Clients think they are doing what’s best, what their doctor told them to do, only to see their skin get worse.
Doctors are trained to diagnose disease and to help you heal from it. Legally, unless they received advanced training in esthetics, they are not the professionals to seek out for the beautification of skin or ingredient knowledge and daily skincare routine; a well trained experienced esthetician is. I have received many hours of advanced training on ingredient toxicology in skincare products, oncology skin health and how ingredients work together (or don’t) to help skin look and feel better. Doctors are there to diagnose problems and prescribe controlled substances, unless they have advanced training in esthetics.
This was the primary reason for me creating J. Renee Organics; all the products I tried and was referred to made my skin worse. My products create a healthy skin environment to support your largest organ. With the right amount of moisture, exfoliation and proper hygiene routine, the skin can look and feel beautiful without further intervention. Schedule your skin assessment today and start on the path of the proper routine for YOU. The path to beautiful healthy skin starts as soon as you take the first step.
Scientific American: “Parabens mimic estrogen by binding to estrogen receptors on cells. Research has shown that the perceived influx of estrogen beyond normal levels can in some cases trigger reactions such as increasing breast cell division and the growth of tumors."
Environmental Working Group: “In human studies, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found decreased fertility was associated with urinary propylparaben (Smith 2013). Another human study linked butylparaben and total urinary paraben levels with decreased fertility, as indicated by decreased menstrual cycle length (Nishihama 2016). Butylparaben levels in the mother’s urine and levels in cord blood were associated with increased odds of pre-term birth and decreased birth weight (Geer 2017).“
Environmental Working Group: “Parabens are also linked to ecological harm, as low levels of butylparaben can kill coral, according to laboratory tests (Danaovaro 2008). Parabens have been detected in surface waters, fish and sediments (Haman 2015). When parabens are combined with chlorinated tap water, a number of chlorinated paraben byproducts can form (Canosa 2006). Little is known about the toxicity of these byproducts, which may be more persistent (Haman 2015).“
