Read the Label: Mineral Oil
Photo: Ilan Rubin/Trunk Archive
You don’t even realize how many personal care and beauty products you use everyday, from that glob of toothpaste in the morning to makeup wipes to clean the day’s grime off at night. With each little ritual, you’re putting hundreds of different chemicals onto and into your body every day. Shouldn’t you know what some of those things are? In this column, we chat with cosmetic chemist Randy Schueller (co-founder of The Beauty Brains), doctors, and other experts to dive deep into the ingredient lists of your favorite products.
Mineral Oil: “Mineral oil refers to a mixture of chemical substances which are refined from crude petroleum oil,” says Schueller.
Otherwise Known As: Base oil, light oil, white oil, liquid paraffin, paraffin oil, liquid petrolatum, and paraffinum liquidum (“Which sounds like a Harry Potter spell,” notes Schueller).
What It Does: Mineral oil functions as a lubricant, moisturizer, and an inert carrier for other oil soluble ingredients, like some vitamins.
Where You’ll Find It: Creams, lotions, moisturizers, baby products, bath oils, hair care products, and ointments.
Safety Profile: Mineral oil has received a bad rap in recent years, mostly because it is a petroleum-derived product, and that sounds both scary and distasteful. However, it’s refined to within an inch of its life, which actually makes it one of the safest ingredients out there. “The acid treatment originally used to refine the oil did a poor job of removing harmful contaminants known as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs),” Schueller explains. “Since the 1960s, a more extensive solvent extraction system has been used to create a more purified finished product which is safe for use.” Even the Environmental Working Group gives it a 1-3 rating (1-2 is “low hazard”) in its Skin Deep database. Schueller points out that some mineral oils have even been certified vegan by the American Vegetarian Association. Bottom line: Mineral oil is safe for muggles.
Side Effects: Mineral oil has also received a bad reputation for clogging pores and causing acne. Early animal studies reported that mineral oil could indeed be comedogenic, but subsequent human studies show that it isn’t. Rabbits, the animals used in those early studies, are apparently more sensitive to it than humans. That being said, however, if you’re prone to oily skin and acne, mineral oil could exacerbate those conditions (though so can coconut, argan, or any other popular plant-based oil on the market now).
Alternatives: Coconut oil, avocado oil, argan oil, jojoba oil, almond oil, cocoa butter. Many companies have removed mineral oil from their products due to the recent spate of bad PR surrounding the ingredient.
