Ingredients with a documented concern, from official datasets and our reviewed database.
Sensitive skin: Best avoidedPregnancy: Use with cautionBabies & kids: Best avoidedEczema-prone: Best avoided
- Allergy risk:Fragrance is the single most common cause of cosmetic contact allergy.
- Irritation:Frequent trigger of stinging and redness on reactive skin.
Caredermis curated dermatological review
An umbrella term that can hide dozens of undisclosed scent chemicals. Fragrance is the leading cause of allergic contact dermatitis from cosmetics, and dermatologists routinely advise fragrance-free products for eczema, babies and sensitive skin.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionBabies & kids: Use with cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:Rising cause of contact and photoallergy, especially in children.
- Environmental impact:Accumulates in aquatic life; degrades into benzophenone over time.
A stabilizing UV filter that can degrade into benzophenone as products age, and an increasingly reported allergen — replace old tubes of octocrylene sunscreens.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionDry skin: Use with cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Irritation:Drying when high on the ingredient list; negligible in trace amounts.
Plain ethanol — position on the label matters: near the top it is drying; near the bottom it is a harmless solvent trace.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:EU-declarable allergen; oxidized linalool is a common patch-test positive.
A floral scent molecule found in lavender and many essential oils. It oxidizes on air exposure into strongly sensitizing compounds, which is why it must be declared on EU labels.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:EU-declarable allergen; oxidation products are potent sensitizers.
The citrus-peel scent molecule. Like linalool, it becomes allergenic mainly after oxidizing in opened products.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:EU-declarable allergen; clove-scented sensitizer.
The clove scent molecule, a long-established contact allergen on the EU declaration list.
Sensitive skin: Use with caution
- Allergy risk:Degradation products can cause photoallergy when unstabilized.
The main UVA filter in US sunscreens. Safe when properly stabilized, but it breaks down in sunlight into potentially sensitizing fragments in poorly formulated products.
Sensitive skin: Use with caution
- Allergy risk:EU-declarable fragrance allergen.
A floral fixative on the EU allergen list, with early-stage evidence of weak hormonal activity being evaluated by regulators.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionEczema-prone: Use with caution
- Allergy risk:EU-declarable fragrance allergen.
A rose-type scent component on the EU's mandatory-declaration allergen list.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionEczema-prone: Use with caution
- Allergy risk:EU-declarable allergen found in tonka bean and many perfumes.
A sweet hay-scented molecule requiring EU allergen declaration; a regular positive in fragrance patch-test series.
- Cancer concern:IARC 2B by inhalation only — relevant to loose powders and sprays, not creams.
A mineral UV filter and pigment that is one of the safest sunscreen choices in cream form; the inhalation-based cancer classification only matters for powder and spray formats.
preservative booster · skin conditioning
- Irritation:Documented occasional contact allergy and eye irritation.
A preservative booster often paired with phenoxyethanol; low-risk overall with rare reports of contact allergy.
- Environmental impact:Poorly biodegradable; can remobilize heavy metals in waterways.
A metal-binding stabilizer that is safe on skin at the tiny amounts used; its criticism is environmental persistence.
- Environmental impact:Not biodegradable; accumulates in the environment via wash-off.
The workhorse silicone — inert and non-sensitizing on skin (even FDA-approved as a skin protectant), with persistence in the environment as its main criticism.
