🚫 ABC Guide of Ingredients to Avoid in Beauty and Skincare - A is for Alcohol Denat

What The Heck is It Doing in Your Lotion?!

Hey kids and parents! 👋

Welcome to the first post in our mission to “Bust Beauty Baddies" the ABC guide of ingredients to avoid in beauty and skincare -where we take look at tricky ingredients hiding in everyday skincare and CALL THEM OUT! Ha!

We will be working through our looooong list alphabetically, with THREE not-so -nice ingredients named and shamed per letter of the alphabet! Sort of a buy one get two free deal!

We will explore

1. What the ingredients are

2. Why they are in your lotions and potions

3. Why they may be icky

   and then...

4. Suggest better alternatives! Yay :)

We are starting with the letter A, and the first guest (or villain?) is…

Alcohol Denat (aka Denatured Alcohol)

So What is Alcohol Denat?

Alcohol Denat is a kind of alcohol added to products like:

• Toners

• Sprays

• Gels

• Some lotions and creams

  
  

  What Does It Do?

  
  

• It’s used to make products dry faster or feel lighter on your skin.

😬 Why Do Some People Avoid It?

Even though it might feel cool and clean at first, Alcohol Denat can:

• Make your skin feel tight or itchy

• Strip away natural oils that protect your skin

• Cause irritation, especially for kids with sensitive skin

  
  

And nobody wants to feel all musty, crusty, dusty after putting on face cream, right?

👍 Kid-Safe Alternatives

Look for products that say:

✅ “Alcohol-free”✅ “Moisturising” or ✅“Gentle for sensitive skin”

Made with ingredients like:

• Aloe vera,

• Chamomile, or

• Coconut water instead of drying alcohols

Bonus Tip: Just because it says “alcohol” doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Huh?!

That's right - some alcohols (like cetyl alcohol or stearyl alcohol) are actually fatty alcohols that help moisturise. Confusing, right?

Don’t worry, we’ll help you tell the difference as we go!

Sparkle Summary!

Alcohol Denat might help products dry quickly, but it can also dry you out—especially if you’re a kid with delicate skin. So if you see it near the top of an ingredient list, (because the nearer the top of the list it is, the more of it there is in the product) it might be best to put that bottle back on the shelf!

Phew! You are not gonna let that meany dull your sparkle!

Coming up next: Our second Ingredient for the letter A – Can you guess the what it may be?

And never forget that You SPARKLE!