Are You Allergic To Soap? 4 Common Ingredients That May Be Irritating Your Skin

Ques­tion: What do peanuts, shell­fish, and wheat all have in common?

Answer: They are some of the most com­mon food allergies.

While this might seem like an easy ques­tion — and you could prob­a­bly list off a dozen oth­er com­mon food aller­gens — you may be less famil­iar with the aller­gens that can cause your skin to have a reac­tion, also called con­tact der­mati­tis.

What Is Con­tact Dermatitis?

• Con­tact der­mati­tis is when your skin devel­ops a rash after becom­ing sen­si­tive to a cer­tain aller­gen that is mak­ing direct con­tact with your skin.

• Some com­mon aller­gens that cause a skin reac­tion include soaps, per­fumes, cos­met­ics, and oth­er per­son­al hygiene products.

• In the US, con­tact der­mati­tis occurs in up to 20% of peo­ple, mak­ing it more com­mon than food aller­gies (which only affect around 10% of people).

Aller­gies can devel­op at any point in your life, which can leave you feel­ing sur­prised when your skin is more sen­si­tive than usu­al. In addi­tion to devel­op­ing aller­gies, some ingre­di­ents in soaps can sim­ply cause a skin reac­tion like dry­ness or itchiness.

Every­one wants to feel com­fort­able in their own skin — and pay­ing atten­tion to dif­fer­ent aller­gens and sen­si­tiv­i­ties can help you do just that.

Here are 4 com­mon ingre­di­ents that can irri­tate your skin.

1. Sul­fates and Parabens

There are many ingre­di­ents that go into your soap or sham­poo that allow it to do its job of keep­ing you clean. Two of these ingre­di­ents are sul­fates and parabens. 

Sul­fates are often found in sham­poos and cre­ate the lath­er­ing effect that helps clean your hair. Parabens are often used in cos­met­ics to pre­vent bac­te­ria and mold from growing. 

Many sham­poos and hair care prod­ucts now list them­selves as ​“Sul­fate- and Paraben-Free,” as these ingre­di­ents can dry out your skin. Switch­ing to a body wash or sham­poo that is made with­out sul­fates and parabens can be a good place to start if you have sen­si­tive skin.

2. Fra­grance

You might be won­der­ing, ​“Fra­grance? What’s fra­grance?” If so, you’re not alone in this confusion. 

When it comes to mak­ing soaps and oth­er cos­met­ic prod­ucts, com­pa­nies can get a lit­tle hush-hush about how their prod­ucts are made and what ingre­di­ents they’re made with. Just like your grandma’s per­fect home­made meal has a secret ingre­di­ent, com­pa­nies also treat what’s in their prod­ucts with the same secrecy. 

Except — instead of a dash of rose­mary added to the pota­toes — with cos­met­ic com­pa­nies, their ​“secret ingre­di­ent” could actu­al­ly be a whole list of ingredients.

This com­bi­na­tion often falls under the cat­e­go­ry of ​“fra­grance” and could include mul­ti­ple aller­gens. While this mys­tery is good for busi­ness (you don’t want any­one copy­ing your prod­uct), it is dif­fi­cult for con­sumers who are just try­ing to fig­ure out why their skin is irritated. 

3. Met­als

While less com­mon in soap, there may be met­al in oth­er cos­met­ic prod­ucts or house­hold clean­ing prod­ucts you’re using. Because of how com­mon met­als are in our every­day lives, you may not real­ize how often you’re com­ing into con­tact with them or how they may be affect­ing you if you have sen­si­tive skin.

Some com­mon met­al aller­gies include nick­el and alu­minum — the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Der­ma­tol­ogy even named alu­minum the 2022 ​“Aller­gen of the Year.” Alu­minum is still an ingre­di­ent in some deodor­ants and might be irri­tat­ing your skin as you per­spire through­out the day. 

4. Oth­er Ingredients 

This might seem like a catch-all cat­e­go­ry, but unfor­tu­nate­ly, it’s true. Dif­fer­ent soaps, body wash­es, and sham­poos have dif­fer­ent ingre­di­ents. There are many parts that go into each prod­uct — and some might not be list­ed on the back of the bottle. 

There might be some­thing spe­cif­ic that’s caus­ing skin irri­ta­tion, like an essen­tial oil. This can make it dif­fi­cult to pin down exact­ly what is caus­ing a reac­tion or irri­ta­tion, but your Duly der­ma­tol­o­gist can help you nar­row the list.

What Can I Do About a Soap Sensitivity? 

If your skin is react­ing to some­thing — and you can’t fig­ure out what — you may get frus­trat­ed. But while it can be annoy­ing to fig­ure out a skin sen­si­tiv­i­ty, that doesn’t mean it’s impos­si­ble or that you’re out of options. 

Start by chang­ing up the prod­ucts you’re using, and notice if you see a change in how your skin is react­ing — or not react­ing. There are many nat­ur­al soap options avail­able that are made with few­er, more clear­ly labeled ingre­di­ents. This can make it eas­i­er to know if some­thing is both­er­ing your skin, or may help clear up your reaction.

Some­times a sim­ple change in prod­ucts might help you han­dle your skin irri­ta­tion or aller­gic reac­tion — but you may need more guidance. 

Your Duly care provider or der­ma­tol­o­gist can help you iden­ti­fy dif­fer­ent aller­gies through a patch test to see what’s caus­ing a reac­tion. A der­ma­tol­o­gist can also make rec­om­men­da­tions about dif­fer­ent prod­ucts and help you fig­ure out how to treat your skin.

Whether you have a sen­si­tiv­i­ty to a food, plant, met­al, or some­thing in your soap, Duly can help you cre­ate a treat­ment plan to man­age even your most scratchy symptoms.

If your skin is giv­ing you a hard time, learn more about our Der­ma­tol­ogy ser­vices or con­tact a der­ma­tol­o­gist today.