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Mineral oil in Elicina Cream base 
We understand that some people are concerned about mineral oil in the cream base we use as carrier for the snails slime. One jar of Elicina contains 4% mineral oil, and 80% snail extract.
Mineral oil is our choice as base for an emulsion to carry an anti-acne product because after much research, trying many other possibilities and reviewing the knowledge there is about mineral oil, and all the myths, we have concluded that it is still the best we can use to serve our customers at our best.
There is no scientific evidence or literature supporting the myth and what is said is at best anecdotal. Most people perpetuating this myth have forgotten they were raised as a baby having mineral oil and petrolatum rubbed daily on their behinds -- with only beneficial results.
We spend a fair amount of time listening to people complaining because we "spoil a wonderful natural product by using a cream base that is not all "natural"". But as someone with extremely sensitive and allergic skin, who has always had to avoid "natural" wonders such as balsam and borage, geranium and thyme oil, I have a different perspective on the whole issue.
First of all, it occurs to me often, that "natural" is a funny word. People use it in reference to jojoba smeared on the face, though what is natural about that?, and insist that mineral oil is not natural, though it is found in nature. "Grapeseed oil" is natural to them, but "lanolin" from a lamb is not. Just because something comes from a plant does not make it "natural" to insert it rectally, bathe in it, or take massive doses of it. Natural poisons will kill just as well as synthetic ones, tobacco comes from a plant, smoking it has never seemed a "natural" act to me, and it is carcinogenic and a killer. Many herbs are toxic, can cause liver damage, and are unregulated. Although prescription and over the counter drugs hold the same potential for damage, they are at least sold with warnings attached, and they are continually being watched and tested by government agencies.
For many years I have struggled with finding products my skin would not react to. Then I found a series of books by the author Paula Begoun. Two of them are especially noteworthy and useful in the search for good beauty products. The first of these is "Don't Go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me." It was first published in 1991, but has been updated yearly. It is paperback and in print, available in stores and from Amazon Books on the Web at www.amazon.com. In this book Ms. Begoun reviews all the beauty products she can get her hands on, from Avon and the Body Shop, to Charles of the Ritz, Dior, Coty, Revlon, Maybelline and Vaseline Intensive Care just to name a few. Although this book does not list ingredients for each product there is a general overview of ingredients in the beginning of the book, as well as a great deal of interesting material about cosmetics in general. The appendix in the back provides 800 numbers for all the cosmetic companies which can be especially helpful to those of us who have specific questions about certain products. The second of her books I have found especially useful is her new one, "The Beauty Bible" which is full of common sense approaches to make-up and skin care, and offers many constructive and simple solutions to some common and uncommon skin problems. Paula Begoun also has a newsletter and a website at http://www.cosmeticscop.com.
I would like to share with you a few passages from her books which are especially interesting.
"...there is no such thing as "all natural" "pure" cosmetics. They don't exist, and if they did, they would not be good for the skin. Natural is ... a term... that is not regulated, so ....if a company wants to call its products natural, it can, and it doesn't matter what they contain. ... Even if "all natural" products did exist you wouldn't want to use it on your skin, anyway. Think about a bunch of fruits and plants or vegetables sitting in your bathroom. What would happen in a very short amount of time if they did not contain preservatives? They would become moldy and disgusting in just a few days. Skin-care products contain very "unnatural" sounding preservatives ...Just think of how many people have hay fever and you will start to realize just how unfriendly natural ingredients can be.
What makes this natural craze so annoying is ...it perpetuates myths which can actually hurt a woman's skin. All of the following natural ingredients can cause skin irritation, allergic reactions, skin sensitivity and/or sun sensitivity: allspice, almond, angelica, arnica, balm mint oil, balsam, basil, bergamot, cinnamon, citrus, clove, clover blossom, cocoa butter, coriander oil, corn oil, cornstarch, cottonseed oil, fennel, fir needle, geranium oil, grapefruit, horsetail, jojoba oil, lavender oil, lemon, lemon grass, lime, marjoram, Melissa, oak bark, papaya, peppermint, rose, sage, tea tree oil, thyme, witch hazel and wintergreen... Furthermore, while vegetable oils may sound better for the skin, dimeticone and cyclometicone (silicone oils) are actually far more beneficial and offer the most impressive benefits for the skin. They are in 80% of all skin care, makeup and hair care products you buy. Yet you rarely hear about them because the cosmetic companies think consumers won't find them as sexy or alluring as plants or oxygen therapy or cellular repair or a thousand other marketing angles that have nothing to do with what really works for your skin..."
Remember the following:
1. Food type ingredients increase the need for additional preservatives to decrease mold and bacteria contamination.
2. Plant oils decompose faster than mineral oils and require higher concentrations of preservatives and fragrances.
3. Plant oils often contain fatty (saturated) acids that can clog pores and cause acne.
4. Food can feed the bacteria in skin increasing the risk of breakouts.
5. Plant extracts are no longer plants and the process used to do the extraction is not "natural"
6. Yeast or bacteria cultures in cosmetics can exacerbate Rosacea and psoriasis.
7. Natural ingredients are almost always synthetically treated so they can be blended into a cosmetic.
There are a lot of natural ingredients but they are no more effective than the so-called synthetic ingredients. In fact, because natural ingredients have a larger range of limitations, synthetic ingredients are often safer and more reliable for the skin. As Dr. Blumberg from Tufts University has pointed out most eloquently "Just because they are in nature doesn't mean it's good for the skin." While plants sound great, pure and natural and all that, and while sesame oil and licorice extract sound far better than capric/caprylic triglyceride and glycrrhetinic acid, they aren't better or worse. Each has its pros and cons and it would be a delusion to assume otherwise.
Many ingredients such as mineral oil get a bad rap because they are derived from coal tar which sounds unnatural, but is actually as natural as any plant. Mineral oil is actually one of the better, least irritating, least problem-causing ingredients for the skin. Remember the question isn't whether something sounds good or appears to be good ...but whether it is genuinely good.
Mineral Oils: There are two basic kinds of mineral oil--those derived from petrolatum (better known as Vaseline) and those derived from a group of ingredients called silicones such as dimethicone and cyclomethicone. Mineral oil and petrolatum are very common moisturizing ingredients and for two good reasons. First they are inexpensive, and second, they work. Petrolatum and mineral oil do not absorb into the skin because the molecules are too large to penetrate the skin. Therefore they stay on the surface and provide a barrier between the skin and the air. This is a good reason to look for mineral oil and petrolatum listed in a moisturizer. The same is true for the silicones which also do an impressive job of keeping water in the skin....I should mention that some beauty experts feel that mineral oils are a skin care no-no and should be avoided at all costs. They feel they can cause blemishes ... I am not sure why these experts pick on mineral oil more than say, lanolin or vegetable oil, which are also known to clog pores and cause allergic reactions. I have not found enough supporting evidence to warrant avoiding any kind of mineral oil if you're not allergic to it. Besides, you are more likely to be allergic to a lot of other cosmetic ingredients than you are to mineral oil.
Advertising confuses the issue. "Oil Free"--the Darling of Madison Avenue.
"Oil free" is fast becoming a favorite term of the cosmetic industry. Many cosmetic manufacturers are substituting chemicals which, legally speaking, are not considered oil free simply because they come from synthetic sources rather than from natural sources, i.e., animal, vegetable or mineral.
These synthetic oils, however, are often more acne producing than a natural oil such as mineral oil. Advertising claims for many cosmetic terms such as "oil free," "dermatologist tested" and "hypoallergenic" can be very misleading. Hypo-allergenic may mean the product is perfume-free, yet it could still contain ingredients harmful to acne-prone individuals. "Dermatologist-tested" may be accurate but not entirely helpful. The product may have been tested for skin allergy or skin irritancy and it's effects on skin pores may have been missed.
The Oil Migration Test.
Not all "oil-free" moisturizers for cosmetics are oil free; some contain oil-like synthetics that can provoke acne-prone skin. How to tell? Dab the moisturizer on good-quality stationery (imprinted 25% cotton fiber). Twenty-four hours later, hold the paper up to daylight and check for oil rings. The extent of migration will correspond to the percent of oil in the cosmetic.
The oil migration test is useful to deduct certain oils in cosmetics, but it is more important to learn to read the labels and avoid troublesome ingredients. Remember, not all oils are bad. Petrolatum and some lighter oils like mineral oil and sunflower oil don't penetrate down into the pore.
What ingredients in cosmetics cause acne?
After the frustration of watching precipitate acne in many acne patients, chemists at Lacofar Laboratory began testing the basic ingredients of more than 200 cosmetics to determine their effects on skin pores.
A word about sebum
Before we discuss cosmetic ingredients, we should consider the skin's own surface oil, sebum. Assuming that sebum is beneficial to the skin, cosmetic chemists have duplicated this substance. Unfortunately, however, we know of no benefits to be derived from sebum. This oil is simply a vestige whose function has been lost in the process of evolution. The last known use of sebum was a territorial make for male gerbils and hamsters.
The claim that sebum is necessary for moisturizing the skin is a little bit absurd when you consider that the finest skin is found in eight-year-old boys and eunuchs, neither of whom have any sebum.
Sebum does not even prevent wrinkles. Wrinkling, or aging of the skin, is a reflection of accumulated sun damage, and no moisturizer in the world is capable of reversing this exhaustion of tissues. Although functionless, sebum is complex, composed of six or seven principle ingredients, including triglycerides and squalene, a precursor of cholesterol. The triglycerides are broken down on the surface of the skin by bacteria to free fatty acids, which cause acne impactions in genetically predisposed families.
As we shall see, many cosmetics also contain these acids; but worse, cosmetics contain esters of fatty acids such as isopropyl mystrate or butyl stearate which are more potent even than our own fatty acids in the production of some acne lesions.
Three main categories of offending ingredients
Lanolins
Lanolin is, perhaps, the most common ingredient in cosmetics. Lanolin is simply sheep skin oil extracted from wool. The fatty acids in lanolin, like fatty acids in our own oil, tend to aggravate some acne in the skin of individuals with genetic tendency toward the disorder. Many lanolin derivatives currently being used in cosmetics are harmful to acne-prone individuals, i.e., etoxylated lanolins and acetylated lanolins. The partially synthetic lanolins are able to penetrate skin pores even better than natural lanolin. Lanolin oil, itself, is acceptable.
Isopropyl Myristate and it's Chemical Cousins
One of the worse offenders is a penetrating oil called isopropyl myristate, the major ingredient in a can of penetrating rust remover, Liquid Wrench. Isopropyl Myristate helps cosmetics apply more smoothly and gives them a slicker, sheer feel. This particular penetrating oil is so aggressive that if left over night in a beaker will actually migrate over the top, down the sides and onto the table top. There are may chemicals similar to isopropyl myristate in cosmetics. The most common are: isopropyl palmitate, isopropyl isothermal, putty sterate, isostearyl neopentonate, myristyl myristate, decyl oleate, octyl sterate, octyl palmitate and isocetyl stearate and PPG myristyl propionate. All must be avoided, as must other surfactants such as laureth-4.
Drug & Cosmetic Pigments
Perhaps one the most troublesome recent findings about acne-producing potential is the red tints used in blushes. Some of the Drug & Cosmetic red dyes are comedogenic, which is not surprising considering they are coal tar derivatives. Ever since doctors noticed that acne was an occupational hazard of chimney sweeps, coal tar has been known for it's acne-causing properties.
An acceptable substitute for red color is carmine, a dye derived from insect wings and discovered by the Aztecs.
