Mineral Oil Myths Explained: Cancer, Safety, and Skincare Benefits

It's been awhile as life has gotten busy! But I'm back with more skincare geekery - this time on mineral oil! I've wanted to write this post for awhile, because over my years being an amateur skincare nerd, I've noticed lots of fearmongering with respect to mineral oil. Some people believe that 1) mineral oil is bad for you because it prevents your skin from breathing, 2) mineral oil causes cancer, or that 3) you shouldn't use it because it is derived from petrochemicals. I'll be taking a look at these three myths in this post!

First though, a little bit of a primer into mineral oil itself.

What is mineral oil?
Mineral oil is a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons (i.e. molecules comprised only of carbon and hydrogen atoms) obtained from petroleum, and consists of saturated hydrocarbons having carbon numbers predominantly in the range of C15 through C50. As seen in the bottles of baby oil, it is easily recognizable as an oily transparent liquid. It's manufactured by the distillation of petroleum, and then followed by refining of residual fractions to meet the standards for cosmetic grade mineral oil.

Peel-Off Masks: Why They're Bad For Your Skin

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of press about peel-off masks, and how awesome they are. I've blogged about somewhat dubious skincare and beauty product trends when I think the hype gets out of hand (I've always been kind of terrible as a shill that way, LOL), but this is probably one of the more egregious ones I've seen lately, so I'll get to the point - I'm really NOT a fan of peel-off masks at all, regardless of brand, and I highly discourage anyone from using them.

Unfortunately, they're really popular, and seem to be receiving a lot of mainstream press as of late. A quick google search turns up the following:

What a cursory search for "peel-off mask" returns

Why are these masks so popular? In a word, it's novelty. Prior to peel-off masks becoming popular, most masks have been clay or gel masks that you leave on and wash off, and can often get messy and drippy. By comparison, peel-off masks seem so much more fun and easier to use - the mask doesn't drip, and instead of washing off the mask, you get the satisfaction of peeling off the mask like this:

Part of the a-peel (see what I did there?) of the mask is that you peel it off (Source)

And, now brands are adding to the fun and entertainment factor of peeling masks by doing things like adding glitter to them, which while fun, doesn't really enhance the skincare value of the product in anyway. But, damn if it doesn't look like the most fun to apply and peel off though!

And yes, this is a My Little Pony mask collection (Source)

But as I've mentioned (right in the title, too), I'm not a huge fan of peel-off masks. I personally find them really bad for skin, and the general formula of these peel-off masks is such that by their nature, they're rather drying and sensitizing to the skin, and it's hard to escape that fact, no matter how much glitter you throw into them. We'll take a look at the general formula of such masks, and see how the masks work, and then check out the ingredients lists of some of the more popular peel-off masks, to see how much they adhere to the general formula. It's lots of ingredients reading. But it's fun! And worth it for better skin!

Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic Review and Ingredients Analysis

Pixi's Glow Tonic has been a cult favourite skincare product, and if you've heard about the brand at all, then chances are, you've probably heard of Glow Tonic. This cult product has raves from virtually every blogger out there, with people excited over how it is both cheap and effective, so I figured it's high time I got around to review it!

Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic: This is THE cult skincare product from the Pixi brand

In case you're wondering why the Pixi Glow Tonic is such a fabled product, in part it's becuase the 5% glycolic acid, which is pretty rare in a product at that price point. So I do get why it lives up to the hype, with people claiming that it works to give them that glow, even for sensitive skin!


Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic: I've been seeing so many rave reviews for it, so I've decided to see how it stacks up!
So, does the Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic actually live up to the hype? Well, let's dive in and find out! Of course, we'll start right at the ingredients list!

Fancl BC Night Intensive Cream and Essence Review and Ingredients Analysis

Check this out - an actual "proper" skincare review! I know I've not done one of these in awhile, but better late than never, right? Fancl's BC range, according to the Fancl website, provides "intensive treatment for aging skin needs". I'm actually not sure what the BC stands for, but suffice to say it's an anti-aging line. Recently (and by recently I meant "actually a couple of months before Christmas last year because I've been busy like that"), Fancl has added two new products to the BC range in Singapore - the BC Night Intensive Cream, and BC Essence. Existing products in the range include a facial cleanser, lotion, as well as eye essence.

Fancl BC Night Intensive Cream and Essence: The newest additions to the BC skincare range

As you can imagine, the products feature a lot of Fancl's typical brand claims - for example being suitable for sensitive skin, having a gentle, simple formula that works as it claims without any unnecessary frills, and also being what the brand calls "preservative free". Some of you may recall I was previously introduced to the brand's "preservative free" philosophy and have done a review here, where I examined whether it was really preservative-free or not. Much to my satisfaction, my assessment of the concept of a "preservative-free" formulation was retweeted by an actual cosmetics formulator, who called it "long but well informed". I won't deny it's long (if you haven't realized my ingredients analysis-type reviews tend to be), but I was happy that he found it accurate. Colin also incidentally runs the blog Colin's Beauty Pages, which I really value for its take on cosmetics by an actual person who knows his ingredients and formulations, and works in the biz!

Fancl Moisturizing Lotion I Review and Ingredients Analysis https://t.co/RCJmlACbL1 //A long read but well informed pic.twitter.com/683b79lkNk

— beautyscientist (@beautyscientist) March 4, 2017

Anyway, after being retweeted by Colin, whom I really respect and admire for his competency, I don't know if this review will live up to my previous one. But I can try! Or at least just do the best I can.


Fancl BC Night Intensive Cream and Essence: Claims to be formulated for sensitive skin, and to be preservative-free
Anyhoo, that was a really, really long introduction for a blogpost (which, by the way, is also going to be quite long). Let's just dive into the review already, shall we? And of course, we're going to start with the ingredients!

Empties: In With the Old, In With the New! Part 2

And this is the official last empties post from 2017! After the previous empties post part 1, which focused on cleansers, we're going to look at all the other various leave-on products! There's quite a lot to go through here, including masks, lotions, moisturizers, sunscreens, and more!

Aaaand, this is the last of the 2017 empties!

Truth be told, I'm always surprised by how much skincare I use up whenever I do one of these empties posts, especially because I don't think of myself as the kind of person who religiously masks her face every week or even slaps on serum every night! Believe it or not, when I'm really tired after a long day of work, I go to bed with no skincare on! The very horror! But sometimes you just gotta sleep, you know? In any case, I attribute my ability to use up my skincare to my large face, haha. I guess a larger surface area does use up more product!


There's a lot of empties here to round off 2017 - I'm surprised I used up all this!
So, let's get started, and finally wrap up 2017 in beauty on this blog!