Silicones in Cosmetics: the debate is open, and as often happens nowadays, opinions may be extremely polarized. When reading online, you can find those who love them, consider them necessary, and minimize any criticism of these ingredients, and there are those who have been avoiding them for years and years.
If one approaches the topic without a pre-established opinion and comes across some in-depth analysis aimed at supporting the thesis of love for silicones, one may wonder at the end of the reading why eco-friendly and organic companies have been seeking alternatives to these ingredients for decades. Probably, as Pirandello said, "truth does not exist," and it becomes really complicated for one to form their own opinion.
So, it is time to clarify this topic, trying to move away from the logic of demonization or mindless praise, but maintaining a critical and constructive attitude. Here are the points we will address in this article:
Silicones in Cosmetics:
Silicones (Organopolysiloxanes) are synthetic polymers, with an inorganic chain of silicon and oxygen and organic side chains. In 1908, F.S. Kipping synthesized the first silicon, and in 1940 silicones began to be industrially produced. Since then, silicones found great extent of use in our world, as they can be used to create resins, oils, wax, but also objects.
Here there are the main characteristics of silicones:
From the 1990s silicons have been used extensively in the cosmetics industry, in particular in creams and hair care products. If we take a closer look to their characteristcs, we do no longer wonder why:
The world of silicones is quite extensive, with the INCI dictionary documenting over 500 derivatives of silicone materials. We can easily recognize them within INCI lists because they typically end with -one, -xane, or -silanoil. The family of silicones is indeed extensive, for simplicity, we can divide it into two main categories:
Reading through the INCI list of the product you are willing to buy, you can understand what's inside it and in what percentages ingredients are used. According to the Cosmetic Regulation 1223/2009, products contained up to 1% must be listed in descending order in the INCI list, while products that are contained less than 1% can be listed randomly. Therefore, reading the INCI list makes us aware that if products are placed in the first positions, their formula will be more or equal to 1%.
What are the pros and cons of silicones? Let's find out everything there is to know on these controversial ingredients.
Pros of silicones in cosmetics:
Cons of silicones in cosmetics:
The majority of our products are certified by CCPB, which is a corporation that in 2005 carried out guidelines to produce acknowledged natural and organic cosmetics. Acording to the guidelines, 95% of the cosmetics ingredients must be organic or must have organic origin.
As you can read in the website of our certifying corporation, silicones are not allowed in certified cosmetics since they have a strong impact on the environment, being produced through synthetize procedures that are not allowed by the corporation. This doensn't mean that everything that comes from a process of synthetisation is not allowed in organic cosmetics: you have to look at the process as a whole, plus evaluate wheter the synthetized component is actually necessary or it can be substitued with natural ingredients. This is not true for silicones: in fact you can use organic oils as substitutes for silicones.
Cosmetics that are traded throughout Europe must respect the 1223/2009 Cosmetics Regulation, according to which each product in the market mustn't be harmful for health. There exist supervising corporations that carry out hundreds of tests, both before and after the entrance of the product in the market, to guarantee effectiveness, safety, and high-quality.
So, as to today, cosmetics traded throughout Europe and that contain silicones are considered safe. However, research is always moving forward and it may happen that other elements start being considered either safe or unsafe. This means that what is safe today might not be safe tomorrow, but research is working to find out alternatives.
Overtime it has occurred that some cosmetics inluded ingredients that have been banished later on, because they were harmful or damaging. For example, chemical sunscreens are banned in Hawaii because they are harmful to coral reefs, or, for a more recent example, the European Union on March 1, 2022 banned zinc pyrithione and butylphenyl methylpropional, better known as Lilial. These ingredients were included in a lot of cosmetics and used even by very popular brands, but today they are banned in cosmetics traded throughout Europe.
As we have seen, silicones can also fall into this category: since January 2020, D4 (Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane) and D5 (Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane) have been banned in rinse-off products with concentrations greater than 0.1%, as they are highly polluting and harmful to aquatic organisms. D4 is also indicated as an endocrine disruptor and may interfere with fertility.
To sum up, we can state that supervising corporations are always moving forward with research, and that what is allowed today might not be allowed tomorrow. A part from some exceptions, silicones are considered safe for human beings but less safe for the environment, due to their characteristics. This is why it is advisable to prefer eco-friendly alternatives.
As a matter of fact, this is one of the several reasons why we don't use silicones in our products, not only because they are synthetic and polluting, but also because they are quite "new", and it is more likely that research changes its mind about them. This is why we prefer organic ingredients to silicones. As to organic ingredients, is research moving forward? Of course it is! Today we have plenty of research confirming that organic ingredients don't harm either the health or the environment in a long-term perspective.
Summing up, we have read that silicones are controversial and disputed ingredients. Are there alternatives? Sure there are alternatives, like vegetable oils and butters, which are organic, biodegradable, and moisturizing ingredients.
We have also learnt that silicones are technical ingredients to create emulsions: when coming accross cosmetics production or (DIY production!), we do need lipid substances.
Lipid ingredients have three different origins:
We hope we have helped you out and even though each of us will decide themselves what products to use, we just wanted to shed light on the fact that there exist organic ingredients to silicones.
If you want to try out our products, try our Minikits.