Barrier Balm for Very Dry Skin

Details

A waterless balm for very dry and easily irritated skin. Cheeks in a cold January, knuckles after too much hand washing, the patch beside the nose that never settles. Seven ingredients and all seven are below, adding to 100. The honest thing to say first is what this product gives up. Petrolatum is the most effective occlusive substance available to anyone. In the standard measurement it cuts water loss through the skin by about 98 percent, where plant butters and plant oils manage roughly 20 to 30 percent. A no-petrolatum claim is therefore a genuine trade, and the whole no-petrolatum shelf is sold as though it were a straight upgrade. It is not. We leave petrolatum and mineral oil out because they are petroleum fractions and this house does not use them, and you should buy this knowing the choice costs you occlusivity rather than gains you safety. If a dermatologist has told you to use petrolatum on a raw patch, use petrolatum. The second thing worth saying is about preservative-free, which is a real claim here and almost never is anywhere else. There is no water in this balm. Microorganisms need water, and specifically they need a water activity above about 0.6 to grow. An anhydrous balm sits far below that, so nothing needs to be added and nothing is. This is also why the balm has no pH: pH is a property of a water phase and there is no water phase, so a pH figure printed on a waterless balm is a number that cannot exist. What it does mean is that a wet finger in the jar introduces the one thing the formula relies on not having, so use a dry finger or the spatula. This is the dry end of a three-moisturiser shelf. Oily and combination skin should buy the light gel moisturiser. Normal to dry skin should buy the everyday face cream. This one is for skin that is past that, and it layers over the cream rather than replacing it.

• Full INCI, in descending order: Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Squalane, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Wax, Ceramide NP, Tocopherol, Cholesterol
• With percentages: Shea Butter 40.00, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 30.35, Squalane 20.00, Sunflower Seed Wax 9.00, Ceramide NP 0.30, Tocopherol 0.25, Cholesterol 0.10. That is 100.00, and it is meant to be checked
• Ceramide 0.30 percent with cholesterol 0.10 percent is 3 to 1. The free fatty acid leg comes from the shea itself, which is roughly 45 percent oleic and 40 percent stearic acid, so it is not added separately
• Unrefined shea butter at 40 percent, which is the whole reason the balm smells faintly nutty
• Squalane from olives, not from shark liver, because those two words are one letter apart and mean different animals
• No preservative, and this is the one product on the shelf where that claim is true rather than a hazard. No water means no water activity to preserve
• No pH figure, because an anhydrous product does not have one. Any waterless balm quoting a pH is quoting nothing
• No petrolatum and no mineral oil, and the paragraph above says what that costs
• No fragrance of any kind, no parfum, no essential oil, none of the 26 EU declarable components
• No dyes, no silicones, no lanolin, no beeswax, so it suits vegans
• No panthenol, which the previous version of this listing claimed. Panthenol is water-soluble and hygroscopic, and in an anhydrous balm it either needs a solvent or slowly draws moisture in through the jar. It is in the everyday face cream at 2.0 percent instead, which is where it belongs
• Honest trade-off one: this is heavy and it stays on the surface. Do not use it under make-up and do not use it on an oily face
• Honest trade-off two: unrefined shea has a distinct nutty smell and a slightly grainy set if it is stored warm and then cooled. Both are what unrefined shea does. Warm a scoop between the fingers and the grain goes
• Honest trade-off three: shea butter can react on a small number of people, particularly anyone with a tree nut sensitivity, and at 40 percent there is nowhere for that to hide. Patch test on the inner arm first