Dangerous aloe vera gel ingredients – Check your label!

You may have a bottle of aloe vera gel in your medicine cabinet or refrigerator, but how long has it been since you’ve taken a good look at the ingredients list? That bottle of green gel might seem simple from afar, but many non-natural aloe vera products include a variety of fillers that do nothing for your skin and may actually be harmful. Here are just a few ingredients we’ve found in conventional aloe vera gel, compared to what you’ll find in Earth’s Daughter’s products:

Conventional Aloe Vera Gel Ingredients: There are More Than You Might Think!

We recently took a stroll down the skincare aisle at a local drugstore and picked up a bottle of conventional aloe vera gel marketed for after sun care. Here are just some of the ingredients it contained:

• Water: This was first on the list, which means it was the most used ingredient. In other words, if you buy this, you’re basically buying a bottle of water.
• Triethanolamine: This common ingredient in skincare products can cause allergic reactions, eye irritation, and dry hair. There is also some research that suggests it can be toxic if it is absorbed into the body over a long period of time.
• “Fragrance”: The beauty industry’s favorite catch-all phrase. The word “fragrance” covers any combination of over 3,100 chemicals, some of which are associated with serious side effects, such as hormone disruption and reproductive problems.
• Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate: This preservative agent is known to cause allergic reactions when applied to the skin. There are also concerns that it is acutely toxic if inhaled. Who’d want to put that on their kid’s skin?
• Aloe Vera Leaf Juice: Yes, aloe vera did make the list of ingredients… all the way down at number eight. That’s not what you’d think if you looked at the packaging though: the big “Aloe Vera Gel” label on the front is misleading at best.

Our Aloe Vera Gel Ingredients

If you compare the list of ingredients on a conventional product with our own aloe vera gel, you’ll notice a big difference: our list is much, much shorter. Here’s what you’ll find in Earth’s Daughter’s aloe vera gel:

• Aloe Barbadensis: The first item on the list (and the vast majority of what’s in the bottle) is pure aloe vera gel. You know, the stuff you’re actually interested in using.
• Citric Acid: A safe, non-toxic preservative.
• Ascorbic Acid: A form of Vitamin C that both nourishes the skin and helps to keep our gel’s shelf-life as long as possible.
• Potassium Sorbate: A form of a naturally occurring antimicrobial compound. We use it to guard our aloe vera gel against bacteria.
• Xanthan: We put a tiny amount of xanthan into our gel to help it keep its consistency, which makes it easier to spread on your skin.

…and that’s it!

When it comes to aloe vera gel, we believe less is more. Aloe has so many amazing qualities on its own, there’s no reason to weigh it down with unnecessary and potentially harmful ingredients. Pure, simple, and natural: why do it any other way?