Firmness and skin improvement: is that correct?
The ancient Egyptians already used beeswax on the skin, for wound care, for example. The Romans, Greeks and Chinese also used beeswax millennia ago. And you can find the sticky substance in modern skin products. You will recognize it on the ingredients list as ‘Cera alba’ or ‘Cera flava’. The idea is that beeswax gives strength to spreads such as lipsticks. And that the stuff improves your skin. Of course I was curious: is that correct?
Beeswax is safe anyway
You see a lot of persistent nonsense online, and some skin advice is downright harmful. My first question is therefore always: is an ingredient safe? And I can be certain about beeswax: yes. Both the US Food and Drug Administration and the Dutch organization VeiligheidNL call beeswax safe (unless you are allergic to propolis, the sticky component of beeswax). My next question is of course: what exactly does beeswax do?
Bad skin bacteria make way for beeswax
Scientists recently listed five studies into the effect of beeswax on the skin. This first showed that beeswax kills skin bacteria, especially bad ones such as S. aureus. Great, because this bad guy can cause inflammation in eczema and acne. The protection is probably due to propolis: it is an antioxidant that has both an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect.
Not irritating, but calming
In one of the studies, beeswax was tested on people with eczema: they have super sensitive skin. It turned out that beeswax caused zero irritation, and even soothed the skin! Likewise in people with psoriasis. Critical point: the test subjects were treated with a mixture: in addition to beeswax, the liniment also contained other ingredients.
2023-10-15 10:07:57
#Fact #fiction #beeswax #good #skin
