Benzoyl peroxide is funny. As a commenter mentioned yesterday, it's used in skin care.
It's a potent oxidizer (and will quickly do a number on reducing agents like hydroquinone, which is the reason for the warning mentioned). Potent enough that it's an explosive. At 2.5-10% concentration, however, it's used in creams as an antimicrobial agent in the treatment of acne.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
If you know me, I have raved about these products for a long time, just to my friends. But I thought it was high time Paulas Choice got its own shillery post.
Over the past couple of years, people in the skeptic community have mentioned wanting skepticism to branch out into 'lady topics', like…
By Joe Schwarcz PhD, Author, USASEF Expo Performer, AT&T Sponsored Nifty Fifty Program Speaker
They sold out after just four hours. And they weren't even hotcakes. They were just little capsules. But these capsules came with a nifty promise. Pop some, and wrinkles, those fearsome hallmarks…
Is Crohn's disease caused by Mycobacterium avium pseudotuberculosis (MAP)?
In an article out yesterday, Australian Dr. Thomas Borody claims yes, and that the medical community is simply too "stuck in their ways" to admit it. I explain below why I think this is incorrect--or at least, premature…
Eleven years ago, two scientists made a bet. One scientist wagered that a new type of antimicrobial agent, called antimicrobial peptides, would not elicit resistance from bacterial populations which were treated with the drugs. Antimicrobial peptides are short proteins (typically 15-50 amino acids…
You might be interested in the fact that I have started to add your blog posts directly to ChemSpider so that your blogs link directly to structure records.
http://www.chemspider.com/blog/molecule-of-the-day-making-it-structure-…
It would be easier for me if you could add yourself..it's about a 60 second operation...very simple...
Thats the stuff that was falling off the teenagers face and bleaching out the carpets. I thought I remembered it ruining the paint jobs in auto body shops. Odd that skin can tolerate it at all.
On the topic of skin care, I've always wondered what the hell half the things in my cosmetics/shampoo/etc. actually are. Do the "hydrolyzed silk proteins" in my shampoo do anything for silky, shiny hair or does the phrase just sound good?
Thanks! Very interesting stuff!
Cynthia, you might want to check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Theres-Antifreeze-Your-Toothpaste/dp/15565269…
I'm currently reading it, it explains all kinds of stuff about food and cosmetics chemistry. It doesn't pull any punches, skeletal formulas are displayed prominently in their full glory. It's written for the layman, though, and is generally easy to understand.
It's so amazing how this molecule can be that bad for our health.....it's really good to know more about this little things that may be really dangerous at the end.....
Adolescent skin care, like Gaul, arrives in three parts: Camouflage, sebum annihalation, global antisepsis. One might imagine topically applied clay plus torcetrapib (perhaps ezetimibe), plus benzalkonium chloride would be the hat trick. Benzoyl peroxide is cheap and effective. For the guys, their face cream can subsitute for the tube of Bondo cure. The reverse is a bad idea.
Anything polymeric (and a bit humectant) that adsorbs onto hair makes it "nicer," beaten eggs to polar-modified silicones to extract of wombat placenta. A little bit of propylene glycol post-wash is very interesting. Cosmetics' singular goal is a promise of better results (distaff confreres' eyes green with envy, macho men with platinum Amex cards) if only the woman would pay more for the better product. Then, recursion.
Upscale from clay base is h-boron nitride. Somehow that seems a little weird.