Vanity has precluded such posts until now, but if I’m an experiential expert on anything, it would be the care and maintenance of finicky skin. I’ve had eczema and etc my entire life, tried just about every prescription and over-the-counter cream out there and consulted with a vast array of dermatologists, doctors and alt-health practitioners. I’ve learned quite a lot about the human dermis and I have very strong opinions on what does and doesn’t suck. So, ta-dah, here’s a semi-regular feature, Skinned, on my trials and tribulations with the body’s largest organ.

Today, fragrance. Above, a picture of my scaly, flaking finger. Maybe it doesn’t look that bad, but it’s wretched. For the past three or four months, tiny, insanely itchy little bubbles keep appearing along my finger. They’ll pop, maybe oozing a little thin, clear fluid, before cracking and staying fissured for a few days. It hurts and burns and makes it very hard to cook, which sucks, cause I love cooking.

There are a lot of causes and a lot of treatments, but my most recent enemy is fragrance, after I had a contact allergy patch test courtesy of my very lovely dermatologist, Dr. Sandy Skotnicki-Grant. (I’ve also developed a corticosteroid allergy after smearing the stuff on as treatment since childhood, but that’s another post). Dr. S-G discovered that I’m allergic to something called Balsam of Peru, used as a perfume fixative in just about everything. So now, I have to carry around a nerdy little list when shopping for everything, because like any sneaky chemical, Balsam of Peru has many aliases, like benzaldehyde, benzoate, benzoin and benzylsalicylate, plus diethylstilbestrol and Myroxylon pereirae klotzsch resin, to name a few. It’s not good enough to get products labelled as “unscented,” cause as confirmed by Dr. S-G, those often contain masking scents to drown out the chemical cacophony. Ew.

After a few days of internet research, I’ve come to the conclusion that, as much as I like things that smell pretty, conventional fragrance is pretty freaky. This handy site, Skin Deep, compiles information on cosmetic toxins from various international sources, instead of relying on the good old U.S. FDA. Let’s take a random look at a perfume I like to smell, say SJP Lovely. It rates an 8 out of 10 on the Skin Deep toxicity scale. One of its ingredients, isoeugenol, is related to Balsam of Peru. It’s also apparently a “known human immune system toxicant” making it a “banned and restricted fragrance” in the EU. It’s been shown to cause cell mutations in lab tests (i.e. it could cause tumors) as well as brain and nervous system effects in moderate doses. And, yes indeed, it’s often a skin irritant at low doses. Isoeugenol is out.

What’s creepy and fascinating is how many different chemicals I touch every day. Most of my personal care stuff was already pretty benign, but even after a full sweep post patch test, I still had the Snake Finger. About a month ago, my skin mysteriously cleared up – it took me days to realize that I’d had a weekend away and hadn’t washed dishes. I started using gloves at home and indeed, the finger is much better. But I’m still getting fragrance-free dish detergent next round, cause citrus scents can apparently react with air to become formaldehyde (another chemical I’ll be hating on later). Then I was up in cottage country last week and realized within an hour that a) I’d forgotten my gloves and b) I was allergic to my host’s Jergens hand soap. What a delicate creature I am.

Another frustration is finding fragrance-free products that are also clear of yucky parabens, SLS, glycols and other suspected endocrine disruptors and carcinogens AND still moisturize the way I want them to. I’ve had some lucky with a body lotion from local outfit Consonant, but have yet to find any face stuff I really love. Send suggestions, and stay tuned.