5 Common Makeup Ingredients To Avoid in 2024

Anyone with sensitive skin would know, that whatever goes on your face can cause some chaos, and it'll make sure you know about it too. Skin tantrums are difficult to deal with, especially when they're consistent! But skincare isn't the only thing that can upset your skin. Most common makeup that you find contains all of the big ingredient no-no's (and a few extra ones too) that can irritate your skin and increase your sensitivities. As makeup goes on your face, the ingredients can sink into the layers of your skin, be inhaled or ingested (by using lip products), so it's important to look at these ingredients. That's why we made MooGoo Makeup, for people who want the same approach to makeup as their skincare.

To make the journey a bit easier for you, we've curated a list of the top 5 common makeup ingredients that are a big No-No if you're looking to achieve healthy, happy skin!

The Top 5 Big No No's

1. Synthetic Fragrances

You know when you walk into a department store and the smell of perfume immediately causes you to sneeze, sniff or block up? Well, that's how your skin feels when you use fragranced makeup. Synthetic fragrances are a huge 'no-no' when it comes to choosing products for sensitive skin. Did you know that one listing of a synthetic fragrance on a product can contain up to 4000 different chemical ingredients?! That's insane! (and also, probably why your skin is protesting so hard).

2. Essential Oil Fragrances

We love all things natural (isn't that obvious?) but 'natural' doesn't always mean safe, and safe doesn't necessarily mean safe for everyone. Essential oils smell amazing and can have some great benefits, but they can also easily irritate the skin, causing redness and itchiness. You may even experience headaches. They're great for sensitive souls and relaxation, but not so much for sensitive skin.  

3. Silicones

Silicones, or ingredients ending in 'cone'  in general, are all from the same family – some are distant cousins. They all cause problems for those with skin troubles (Dimethicone, Trimethicone, and Methicone are the big hitters to look out for). Why? Because, Silicone acts as a barrier and can trap sweat, sebum, bacteria, and more inside, clogging your pores. If these are trapped in the skin for long enough, it can lead to breakouts, congestion and irritation. Silicone also slows down cellular renewal in the skin which can decelerate the healing and skin recovery process. Silicone is used to create the illusion of smooth, moisturised skin. Although it is effective in making the skin feel silky and products easily spreadable, it does not deliver any nourishment to the skin. As we said, it's an illusion!

4. Phenoxyethanol

An ingredient commonly found on the back of makeup labels is Phenoxyethanol - an affordable synthetic preservative that has a longer shelf life than many natural alternatives, hence its popularity. According to the EWG, Phenoxyethanol is considered a high concern for irritation around the skin, eyes, or lungs and is considered toxic or harmful if used around the mouth or on the lips. That's enough to make us not touch this ingredient with a 10-foot pole (speaking of which, where is our 10-foot pole?).

5. Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde can irritate, but it also causes sensitised skin. You'll be hard-pressed to find straight-up formaldehyde in products because of its toxicity, but here's the tea: many products have ingredients in them that when decomposed together release a form of formaldehyde. How sneaky, right? Well, don't worry, here is exactly what to look out for:

• Sodium hydroxymethyl glycinate

• Diazolidinyl urea

• Imidazolidinyl urea

• Methenamine

• DMDM hydantoin

• Quaternium-15

• Bronopol (2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1, 3-diol)

So, what ingredients do we use instead?

All of our products are free from silicones, fragrances, paraffins, and all those toxic ingredients listed above. Each MooGoo Makeup item also has added natural ingredients to either hydrate, nourish, or calm skin inflammation. Our Mineral Foundation Powder is made from Mica (a mineral pigment) and anti-bacterial Zinc Oxide. Our Earth Cream has Nigella Sativa Oil, a flowering plant that significantly reduces skin irritation and improves skin hydration plus epidermal barrier function.⁠ It also has been known to help acne, burns, wounds, and other inflammatory skin conditions.

More go-to ingredients include Olive Squalane and Borage Oil (Starflower), both of which hydrate and calm skin inflammation. You'll also find oils like Jojoba, Macadamia Oil and Vitamin E, which make a few appearances to keep skin moisturised and radiant, and they make our Vegan Lipstick extra creamy too. We even use Acacia Gum instead of Pine Tar in our Mineral Mascara to be gentle on the eyes and nourish lashes.

Meet Courtney, and her skin transformation:

We don't promise you any miracle transformations after switching to our products but we can certainly tell you what the ingredients we use are and what they have the power to do. Instead of just talking about it, we'll show you. The proof is always in the pudding!

This is Courtney. Courtney suffers from extremely sensitive and easily irritated skin – but just like so many of us, Courtney's also a makeup lover! She has spent countless dollars on products claiming to be beneficial and suitable for sensitive skin only to be met with consistent soreness and rashes. Courtney's even said that she's spent “countless nights crying over my inflamed skin”.

She told us, "Whenever my skin was clear, I'd tempt myself to a hint of foundation, only to pay the price for the next 7 days. I had almost given up completely. I'd try new foundations and products and was greeted with that incredibly familiar burn, the one where I knew my skin was tearing itself apart."

During one of those times when her skin was reasonably calm, Courtney tried MooGoo Makeup Mineral Foundation Powder. As you can imagine, she didn't have much hope. She left it on for a few hours and was "met with nothing but confidence and comfort".

Courtney now wears her MooGoo Makeup Mineral Foundation regularly, and as you can see from the picture, her skin looks absolutely beautiful! Just as importantly, her skin is happy and calm, even after her makeup comes off. That's exactly why we created the MooGoo Makeup range.