Question About Cleure Products

by Kelsey

Hi I was doing some research on the Cleure products because I'm interested in natural cleansers for my face. I've been breaking out bad lately and I think it has to do with the toxins in my facial cleansers. However after looking at the ingredients in the Cleure skin care I noticed that they are not natural or organic: dimethicone, isododecane, caprylyl glycol and other strange chemicals. Now I'm confused. Is there any way you can clear this up for me?

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My reply:

Hi Kelsey, and thanks for writing. This is a great question. Yes, for some people it is the chemicals in skin care products that can cause facial breakouts, but not all chemicals cause problems. It really depends on which chemicals are used and what effect they can have on the body.

There are also people who may be having an allergic reaction to even herbal, botanical, or natural ingredients. Just because an ingredients is natural does not mean it will work for you. It's like hay fever, some of us get allergies in the springtime when we go to the nice fresh outdoors! :-)

Even natural skin care ingredients when used in skin care products may require a preservative, which is not usually required to be listed on the label. That is why I have so many homemade skincare recipes on this site, as they can be made without preservatives, and using only a few ingredients. For some people, this approach works best for their sensitive skin.

Now not everyone will have an allergic reaction to natural products, and I've found a great skincare line made for sensitive skin which has natural ingredients and does not give me a reactions.

The key is to find out what your unique body is reacting to, and then find some healthier alternatives for you. What you find that works for you may be different than what works for me or for others.

My problem was finding products that were 1. chemically safe, 2. not irritating or allergy producing and 3. that also worked well and provided good results. After all, even sensitive people want to look good! :-)

In answer to your question about Cleure products, they are the hypoallergenic line that I could find which is formulated to be free of botanicals which can irritate some people who may have allergies, especially those with salicylate allergies.

The big difference between Cleure's ingredients and those of other hypoallergenic products I've seen which may also be botanical free, such as Vanicream, Neutrogena and so forth, is that Cleure uses gentler chemical ingredients which do not irritate the skin and which have little or no toxic effects on the body. They have eliminated parabens from all their hair, skin and body care products, and are currently updating their cosmetics, most of which are now paraben free.


Most everything in our world is made up of chemicals, and the problems start when we use those chemicals that have a more harmful effect on the body.

For example dimethicone, isododecane, caprylyl glycol are chemicals used in Cleure and other hypoallergenic product lines but their effect on the body is less irritating and much less toxic than other kinds of chemicals which are commonly used in hypoallergenic skin care products.

Just as an example, if you look at the research on these ingredients at the cosmetics database (cosmeticsdatabase.com), you can see that the hazard level of these ingredients is very low.

Now the Cosmetics Database is not perfect, so there may be things missing from the research they have done, however I find that they are a good guideline.

I think the best way to decide what chemicals we expose our bodies to is a combination of education and intuition.

Each of our beautiful, unique bodies may or may not react to these chemicals, but I believe they are better than parabens and other more irritating substances.

If you compare these ingredients with some of the ingredients used in some other popular hypoallergenic product lines, you'll see a big difference. For example Neutrogena products contain fragrance which is one of the top five allergens and considered a high hazard to health. They also use Methylparaben and Propylparaben which can cause skin irritation.

Even the better hypoallergenic product lines such as Vanicream use less irritating ingredients but they still are not good enough for what I am looking for. According to my research, their ingredients are less gentle and potentially more hazardous to the body.

To their credit, they've chosen chemicals which tend to be less allergenic, even though they can cause other problems. For example their shampoo contains PEG-150 pentaerythrityl tetrastearate, Disodium EDTA, or PEG-12 dimethicone.


I've written more on this here at our hypoallergenic products page. Our free eBook shows you more about how to look up the ingredients in your products to see how potentially irritating they may be.

I hope this is helpful to you Kelsey and please let me know if you have further questions.

Best wishes,
Mashubi