In a group chat yesterday, one of the women posted a picture of her lips after using a lipstick containing chillies and was very happy at her lips pumping up. Which got me wondering: when we look for cosmetic effects on our skin, do we even stop to consider how these are being promoted at a cellular level?
The chilli ingredient works by causing inflammation of the lip cells thus resulting in the plumping effect she was so pleased about. I’m sure we have all experienced this ourselves if we like eating chillies! These effects are, however, temporary and will normally dissipate within 30 minutes to a couple of hours. Imagine sitting there having a first date who then notices that your lips have now reduced in size – girls, repeatedly rushing to the ladies every half an hour is going make the person think you have a weak bladder or busy texting your mates; is this really an impression you want to create?
And if things progress, you’re going to make sure you wake up first every morning to reapply that lippy!
We then moved the topic on to discuss face creams that contain such actives as snake venom; the lady in question happily admitted she had many of these as well as creams containing snail slime, but it was OK because they were synthetic.
Now I’ve not delved deeply into the science of how these personal care products are synthesised, but I am assuming that it would take companies many hours and financial expense to determine which actives could “safely” be synthesized and which needed to be removed because of their potential long terms adverse effects on the body.
Snake venom comes in 2 main forms: neurotoxins used by cobras, mambas, kraits etc and those from the viper and rattlesnake family affect the cardiovascular systems. As we all know, their effects can be lethal especially to young humans and elderly and some with certain health issues.
Yes the skin is a really effective barrier (you need specialist chemicals to penetrate the layers and get into the bloodstream) but watch out if you have any cuts or other skin issues such as acne. But do be aware that the personal care market is not as well regulated as the medical one and therefore it’s not hard for products to be launched without the adequate safety testing, including long term usage.
I’ve never seen any of the international brands advertise products with these toxins which does make me wonder if they have any products with them in and if these synthetic venoms are so good for the skin, then why not …?
Would you consider using snake venom creams on your face to temporarily reduce skin wrinkles?
