A moisturizer that heals, relieves, and repairs extremely dry, cracked feet.
Uploaded by: ravennareckless on
Ingredients overview
Water, Glycerin, Stearic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Allantoin, Paraffin, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Octyldodecyl Stearate, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Acrylates/Acrylamide Copolymer, Mineral Oil, Polysorbate 85
Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>
Highlights
#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free
Alcohol Free
Fragrance and Essential Oil Free
Key Ingredients
Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin
Soothing: Allantoin
Other Ingredients
Buffering: Sodium Hydroxide
Emollient: Stearic Acid, Octyldodecyl Stearate, Mineral Oil
Emulsifying: Polysorbate 85
Moisturizer/humectant: Glycerin, Acrylates/Acrylamide Copolymer
Perfuming: Paraffin
Preservative: Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
Solvent: Water, Mineral Oil
Surfactant/cleansing: Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Polysorbate 85
Viscosity controlling: Stearic Acid, Paraffin, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | solvent | ||
| Glycerin | skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | 0, 0 | superstar |
| Stearic Acid | emollient, viscosity controlling | 0, 2-3 | |
| Sodium Hydroxide | buffering | ||
| Allantoin | soothing | 0, 0 | goodie |
| Paraffin | viscosity controlling, perfuming | ||
| Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose | surfactant/cleansing, viscosity controlling | 0, 1 | |
| Octyldodecyl Stearate | emollient | 0, 0 | |
| Diazolidinyl Urea | preservative | icky | |
| Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate | preservative | ||
| Acrylates/Acrylamide Copolymer | moisturizer/humectant | ||
| Mineral Oil | emollient, solvent | 0, 0-2 | |
| Polysorbate 85 | emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing |
O’Keeffe’s Healthy Feet Foot Cream
Ingredients explainedWater
Also-called: Aqua | What-it-does: solvent
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
Glycerin - superstar
Also-called: Glycerol | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
- A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
- A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
- Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
- Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
- High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>
Stearic Acid
What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2-3
A common multi-tasker fatty acid. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), gives body to cream type products and helps to stabilize water and oilmixes (aka emulsions).
Sodium Hydroxide
Also-called: lye | What-it-does: buffering
The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right.
For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed.
BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers.
Sodium hydroxide in itselfis a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totallyharmless.
Allantoin - goodie
What-it-does: soothing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.
It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.
Paraffin
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, perfuming
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1
A handy helper ingredient (a polymer, i.e. big molecule from repeated subunits) that is used to stabilize emulsions as well as to thicken up products. It can also stabilize foam in cleansing products.
Octyldodecyl Stearate
What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Diazolidinyl Urea - icky
What-it-does: preservative
An antimicrobial preservative that helps your products not to go wrong too quickly. It works especially well against bacteria, specifically gram-negative species, yeast,and mold.
Somewhat controversial, it belongs to an infamous family of formaldehyde-releasers. That is, it slowly breaks down to form formaldehyde when it is added to a formula. We have written more aboutformaldehyde-releasing preservatives and the concerns around them atDmdm Hydantoin, but do not get too scared, those are more theories than proven facts.
As for Diazolidinyl Urea itself, a study from 1990 writes that at concentrations up to 0.4%, it was a mild cumulative skin irritant, but the CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review) reviewed it in 2006 and found that, in concentrations of <0.5%, it is safe as used, as the amount of formaldehyde released will be smaller than the recommended limit (of less than 0.2%).
All in all, it is up to your personal decision and skin sensitivity.
Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
What-it-does: preservative
It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. Its strong point is being effective againstyeasts and molds, and as a nice bonus seems to be non-comedogenic as well.
It is safe in concentrations of less than 0.1%but is acutely toxic when inhaled, so it's not the proper preservative choice for aerosol formulas like hairsprays. Used at 0.1%, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate has an extremely low rate of skin-irritation when applied directly for 24 hours (around 0.1% of 4,883 participants) and after 48 hours that figure was 0.5%, so it counts as mild and safe unless your skin is super-duper sensitive.
Acrylates/Acrylamide Copolymer
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Mineral Oil
Also-called: Paraffinum Liquidum | What-it-does: emollient, solvent | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2
The famous or maybe rather infamous mineral oil. The clear oily liquid that is the "cheap by-product" of refining crude oil and the one that gets a lot of heat for its poor provenance. It is a very controversial ingredient with pros and cons and plenty of mythsaround it. So let us see them:
The pros of mineral oil
Trust us, if something is used for more than 100 years in cosmeticproducts, it hasadvantages. Chemically speaking, cosmetic grade mineral oil is a complex mixture ofhighly refined saturated hydrocarbons with C15-50 chain length.It is not merely a "by-product" but rather a specifically isolated part of petroleum that is very pure and inert.
It is a great emollient and moisturizer working mainly by occlusivity.Occlusivity is one of the basic mechanisms of how moisturizers work and it means that mineral oilsits on top of the skin and hinders so-called trans-epidermal water loss, i.e water evaporating out of your skin. When compared to heavy-duty plant oil, extra virgin coconut oil, the two of them were equally efficient and safe as moisturizers in treating xerosis, a skin condition connected to very dry skin.
The other thing that mineral oil is really good at is being non-irritating to the skin. The chemical composition of plant oils is more complex with many more possible allergens or irritatingcomponents, while mineral oil is simple, pureand sensitivity to it is extremely rare.If you check out the classic French pharmacy brands and their moisturizers for the most sensitive, allergy prone skin, they usually containmineral oil. This is no coincidence.
The cons of mineral oil
The pros of mineral oilcan be interpreted as cons if we look at them from another perspective. Not penetrating the skin but mostly just sitting on top of it and not containing biologically active components, like nice fatty acids and vitamins meanthat mineral oil does not "nourish" the skin in the way plant oils do. Mineral oil doesnot give the skin any extra goodness, it is simply a non-irritating moisturizer working mainly by occlusivity.
The myths around mineral oil
Badmouthing mineral oil is a favorite sport of many, it is a cheap material and being connected to petrolatum makes it fairly easy to demonize.
While it is true that industrial grade mineral oil contains carcinogenic components (so-calledpolycyclic compounds), these are completely removed from cosmetic and food grade mineral oil and there is no scientific data showing that the pure, cosmetic grade version is carcinogenic.
What is more, in terms of the general health effects of mineral oils used in cosmetics, a 2017study reviewed the data on their skin penetration and concluded that "the cosmetic use of mineral oils and waxes does not present a risk to consumers due to a lack of systemic exposure."
Another super common myth surrounding mineral oil is that it is comedogenic. A 2005 study titled"Is mineral oil comedogenic?" examined this very question and guess what happened? The study concluded that "based on the animal and human data reported, along with the AAD recommendation, it would appear reasonable to conclude that mineral oil is noncomedogenic in humans."
Overall, we feel that the scaremongering around mineral oil is not justified. For dry and super-sensitive skin types it is a great option. However, if you do not like its origin or its heavy feeling or anything else about it, avoiding it has never been easier. Mineral oil has such a bad reputation nowadays that cosmetic companies hardly dare to use it anymore.
Polysorbate 85
What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
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Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more] A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more] A common multi-tasker fatty acid that works as an emollient, thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more] Lye - A solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amount to adjust the pH of the product. [more] Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.It's not only soothing but it' [more] A handy helper ingredient (a polymer, i.e. big molecule from repeated subunits) that is used to stabilize emulsions as well as to thicken up products. It can also stabilize foam in cleansing products. [more] An antimicrobial preservative that helps your products not to go wrong too quickly. It works especially well against bacteria, specifically gram-negative species, yeast,and mold.Somewhat controversial, it belongs to an infamous family of formaldehyde-releasers. [more] It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. Its strong point is being effective againstyeasts and molds, and as a nice bonus seems to be non-comedogenic as well.It is safe in concentrations of less than 0.1%but is acutely toxic when inhaled, so it's not the proper preservative choice for aerosol formulas like hairsprays. [more] A clear, oily liquid that comes from refining crude oil. Even though it is a highly controversial ingredient, the scientific consensus is that it is a safe, non-irritating and effective emollient and moisturizer working mainly by occlusivity. [more] what‑it‑does solvent what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling irritancy,com. 0, 2-3 what‑it‑does buffering what‑it‑does soothing irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does viscosity controlling | perfuming what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing | viscosity controlling irritancy,com. 0, 1 what‑it‑does emollient irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does emollient | solvent irritancy,com. 0, 0-2 what‑it‑does emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing
