Whats in that canned goo????

I`m currently wrighting an essay on shaving, and part of what i`m doing is compairing "old fasioned" shaving with modern shaving, and in my research i have looked up what go`s into the canned goo that most people use, and its scary....


Aqua: Water
Palmitic Acid : a fatty acid found in most plants and animals.
Triethanolamine: an emusifyer this also carries warnings from the manufactuer that it may cause skin irritation and dermatitis http://www.dow.com/PublishedLiteratu...romPage=GetDoc
Laureth 23: emuslifyer.
Isobutane: propellant for the arosol.
Aloe Barbadensis: extract of the Aloe plant it has soothing and healing properties.
Paraffinium Liquidum: a mineral oil used as a lubricant
Stearyl Alcohol: yet another emulsifier,
Cetyl Dimethicone Copolyol: emulsifier
Propane: propellant
Lauramide DEA : emulsifier Parfum: this is the scent used in the product, and is kept a secret by most comapnys.
PEG 150 Distearate: emulsifier.
BHT (Butylated hydroxytoluene) : anti oxidant
Imidazolidinyl Urea : preservative
Methylparaben: preservative
Propylparaben: preservative
Quaternium 15: preservative.



And when the basic ingredients of shave soaps are olive oil, lye and water,

its clear what i want on my face!

BigIan,

On the bright side, canned goo is just great for a shaving cream fight in a college dorm.

You can't do that with a puck of shaving soap.

My mom has this saying "If you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't eat/touch/use it."

Hence why I've only used the goo stuff once in my life when I was younger and more ignorant, and first learning how to shave.

_Will

Thanks for sharing your research with us, BigIan. This definitely gives weight to the "canned goo is crap" POV, prove positive. I would even recommend to the mods, or powers that be, that this should be either a sticky or part of the wiki for newcomers.

My only regret is that I didn't discover proper soaps and creams earlier in my "shaving career".

Cheers,

Ryan

Excellent choice for your essay, I never got to write about anything like this when I was in school. While we are on this subject, I would like to point out a few things:

1) shave soaps hardly ever contain olive oil as the main oil, some do for the conditioning properties of the oleic acid but since oleic acid is not a good latherer, this is kept at a "minimum" and usually added after saponification is completed. Often when shaving soaps contain more olive oil, they do not lather as well.

2) Palmitic acid is a main component of many shaving creams and soaps, it is included in several reformulated shaving soaps that used to contain tallow.

3) Triethanolamine, parabens and aloe vera are common ingredient in some high end shaving products, notably Castle Forbes shaving cream. Triethanolamine is a controlled substance because it is used as a reagent for production of mustard gas but it is also widely spread in the pharmaceutical and toiletry industry and as you indicated, it can cause contact dermatitis and other allergies. Needless to say, triethanolamine and its salts have been recently banned from some uses in some European countries. It is a matter of debate whether these chemicals (triethanolamine and parabens) can be really harmful at the concentrations hey are found in shaving products and giving the way that they are applied on the skin, same with Quaternium 15.

4) Liquid paraffin is really mineral oil, which is basically baby oil. Isobutane and propane are also paraffins but they are gases, they are all inert (do not have much reactivity) but in the case of the gases (and some liquids), they are all very flammable.

5) Most of "these" emulsifiers can be found one way or another is traditional shaving creams or soaps, only that they usually salts of inorganic ions instead or organic groups. I obviously do not all the MSDS and other warning for these chemicals but I would consider most of them to be on the safe side.

The bottom line is that as a consumer, you can chose to use products that do not contain the ingredients you do not like or are unsure about. A lot of excellent products are produced without these chemicals, you just have to look for them. The other thing is not to let the name scare you, some of these chemicals are pretty common and "innocuous".

Great post!!!!

Al raz.

I was doing some reading and found that some "essential oils" can be bad for you as well. I believe lime essential oil is actually photo-toxic if not prepared or utilized properly. I have read that if it is steam distilled, then essential oils are ok for you in products, but I don't know this for sure. There has been a lot of debate about parabens and breast cancer. From what I can tell in the little research that I have done on the subject is that no evidence has been found to prove a correlation between parabens and breast cancer. Methylparaben is also thought to be photo-toxic as well.

Personally, I hope that Castle Forbes Lime shaving cream is perfectly safe because I like it a lot.

Aren't chemicals fun!

At keeping my mirror from fogging up, one treatment last a long time and at around 2 bucks a can its very cheap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jhenry

BigIan,

On the bright side, canned goo is just great for a shaving cream fight in a college dorm.

You can't do that with a puck of shaving soap.

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but that puck of shaving soap will fit in a big sock to help convince someone not to squirt shaving goo all over your door :mace: