If you have celiac disease or a gluten intolerance, you may wonder whether gluten in your skin care products can affect you the way gluten in food does. The short answer: skin contact alone carries relatively little risk. The real concern is products that can reach your mouth, like lip balm, toothpaste, or lotion transferred from hands to food. This guide covers which ingredients to watch for on a label and how to shop with confidence.
Concerns About Gluten in Skin Care Products
The risk may be low, but many people who suffer from celiac disease, or are gluten intolerant, choose to avoid gluten in all products. Here's why:
For people who suffer from celiac disease, eating gluten can damage the lining of the small intestine, causing problems with the digestive system. Those who are gluten intolerant also experience digestive symptoms. The only way to manage these conditions is to follow a gluten-free diet.
Some people develop a form of celiac disease called dermatitis herpetiformis, which causes an itchy, blistering rash. Although the reaction involves the skin, it's actually triggered by gluten ingestion, not from using products that contain gluten on the skin. For a deeper look at how celiac disease and gluten intolerance can show up on the skin, see our article on Celiac Disease, Gluten and the Skin.
There's relatively little risk to using personal care products containing gluten unless the product gets into the mouth or an open sore. Concerns may arise from toothpastes, mouthwashes, lipsticks, and lip balms that come in contact with the mouth. Creams, lotions, make-up, sunscreens, and hairspray can also get into the mouth when applying, or can transfer from hands and fingers to mouth or food.
Cosmetic manufacturers can change formulas and ingredient suppliers without notice. There's also a risk of cross-contamination from gluten used in other products that run on the same manufacturing line. To avoid gluten, you have to know which ingredients to watch for. As challenging as that may be, it's worth reading the label before using any personal care product.
Ingredients You May Want to Avoid
Gluten can be found in wheat, barley, rye, triticale, and their derivatives. If you want to avoid gluten in personal care products, here are some tips. For a full breakdown of what's in each Vanicream formula, our Ingredients & Functions glossary lets you check any product against the names below.
1. Avoid ingredients with wheat, gluten, or triticum (Latin for wheat) in the name, including:
- AMP-isostearoyl hydrolyzed wheat protein
- hydrolyzed wheat protein (HWP)
- hydrolyzed wheat gluten
- triticum lipids
- triticum vulgare
- wheat bran extract
- wheat germ extract
- wheat germ glyceride
2. Avoid ingredients with barley, malt, or hordeum vulgare (Latin for barley) in the name, such as:
- barley extract
- hordeum vulgare extract
- malt extract
3. Avoid ingredients with rye or secale cereal (Latin for rye) in the name.
4. These ingredients derived from oats or avena sativa (Latin for oats) may be cross-contaminated with gluten:
-
sodium lauroyl oat amino acid
- avena sativa extract
Choose Gluten-Free Skin Care Products
If you suffer from gluten intolerance or celiac disease and want to avoid gluten in your skin care products, learn about our gluten-free moisturizers, sunscreens, cleansers, hair care, and more at www.vanicream.com. All of our personal care products are formulated without the above ingredients and have been tested to be gluten-free based on the FDA proposed guidelines in foods labeled gluten-free. They are also formulated without common chemical irritants such as dyes, fragrance, masking fragrance, lanolin, parabens, and formaldehyde releasers. Ideal for those with sensitive skin.
If fragrance is another ingredient category you're trying to navigate, see our related article on Avoiding Fragrance in Skin Care. And for more on how ingredient labeling terms can be inconsistent across brands, see "Hypoallergenic" Skin Care Products: A Call for Regulation.
References:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/celiac-disease/expert-answers/celiac-disease/faq-20057879
https://www.skinsmatter.com/hair-dye-without-ppd/
http://livingglutenandgrainfree.com/2011/02/14/gluten-free-personal-care-products-2/
https://www.drkarafitzgerald.com/2017/02/02/hidden-sources-gluten/
FDA Proposed Rule-72 FR 2795, January 23, 2007: Food Labeling; Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods. Federal Register, 72 (14);2795-2817, 2007