Gluten Free Skin Care?
In recent times Gluten Free Skin Care & Make Up has been making headlines. We are getting a number of enquiries as well, so I thought it was time look into this. As it turns out MISMO skin care and make up range is gluten free (Except for our PHP MASK which contains oats).
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye flours. Coeliac (British spelling) disease is an auto-immune disorder in which eating gluten results in inflammation in the small intestine. I guess we could assume that if you are a Coeliac you would be unable to use topical products that contain gluten. Many people are gluten intolerant but not Celiac.
So if you need to eat the gluten to get the symptoms, why does skin care and make up need to be gluten free? Despite this fact, a lot of people are having strong reactions to products that are made with gluten, hence the growing demand for gluten free products. Some people even suffer from a form of Coeliac disease that only affects the skin (Dermatitis Herpetiformis).
This is the response from Dr Michael Picco of the Mayo Clinic USA to a question from a Celiac (USA spelling) asking if she needs to use gluten free makeup, skin care and shampoos:
"Gluten-containing skin care products and cosmetics aren't a problem unless you accidentally swallow them. For this reason, avoid using such products on your lips or around your mouth. Also, avoid using gluten-containing dental products, such as certain mouthwashes and toothpastes. If you're uncertain about whether a product contains gluten, check the ingredient list on the product label or contact the manufacturer".
If you have a problem using mascara or eye products, study the ingredients. Gluten based products are sometimes used as binders to hold products together. These ingredients can irritate eyes.
Studies have shown that gluten can be the culprit in causing acne, acne rosacea, eczema, hives, dermatitis herpetiformis, and psoriasis for many with intolerance to this protein. This is an area where much more study needs to be done and is an interesting topic.
While the jury is still out on gluten free skin products it is better to be safe than sorry. One thing to bear in mind is the size of the molecule and the offending ingredients is usually too large to penetrate skin.
13000MISMO
If your skin care or make up isn’t agreeing with your skin it might be worthwhile investigating the ingredients to see if it contains any gluten.
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