Ingredients with a documented concern, from official datasets and our reviewed database.
Sensitive skin: High cautionDry skin: High cautionBabies & kids: Use with cautionEczema-prone: Best avoided
- Irritation:Drying and barrier-disrupting in high-alcohol formulas with regular use.
Denatured ethanol gives products a fast-drying, weightless feel, but as a leading ingredient it degrades the skin barrier with repeated use — a poor match for dry, sensitive or eczema-prone skin.
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 cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:American Contact Dermatitis Society Allergen of the Year 2018.
- Irritation:Can irritate compromised skin at higher concentrations.
A workhorse humectant and penetration enhancer that is fine for most, but a recurring culprit in eczema patients' patch tests.
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.
Babies & kids: Use with caution
- Irritation:Occasional stinging and irritation, mostly around eyes and on damaged skin.
Today's most common preservative, considered safe by the SCCS up to 1%. French authorities advise avoiding it in wipes and diaper-area products for children under 3 as a precaution.
Sensitive skin: Use with caution
- Irritation:Irritating at higher concentrations or in leave-on products.
- Allergy risk:Occasional contact allergen.
A pH adjuster that is safe in itself but should not be combined with formaldehyde releasers or bronopol, which can convert it to nitrosamines.
- 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.
- Environmental impact:vPvB classified; EU restriction from 2027 alongside D5.
A cyclic silicone facing the same 2027 EU environmental restrictions as D5.
- 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.
- 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.
TEREPHTHALYLIDENE DICAMPHOR SULFONIC ACIDRegulatory dataIrritationEU CLP Eye Dam. 1