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Ingredients

Earthmama user profile picture

Earthmama

Oily/Sensitive

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DIFFERIN 4% niacinimide dark spot serum

Does anyone know why the second ingredient in this is ALCOHOL? Plain old alcohol. Water, alcohol, niacinimide......I've heard such good things about this product. Why does it have so much and how come nobody else has brought this up before?
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23

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9

9 Comments

jinnaee user profile picture

jinnaee

Dry/Resilient

In a lot of products, alcohol is used as a delivery agent that helps the consistency of the formula be less tacky, and also allows better absorption. Most of the time alcohol isnโ€™t that bad of an ingredient but it does tend to dry some people out. I do agree that alcohol as the second ingredient is quite high up though.
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Earthmama user profile picture

Earthmama

Oily/Sensitive

yes I always see some form or another of alcohol in products but I was just surprised by this specific "derm line" would have it as the 2nd ingredient. also I have another question maybe you can help me with? it says 4% niacinimide but my Naturium niacinimide/Zinc is 12% niacinimide. why does differens feel like they are making a big deal about 4%? although I know higher % doesn't equate to the product working better, I'm just curious why it feels like 4%.is a big deal? just making sure I'm not missing anything.
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Betweendots user profile picture
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Betweendots

Oily/Sensitive

Hi, just to clean that out - Alcohol is used as a transfer ingredient to make it easier for substances to get deeper into your skin since skin has it's size and molecules likes collagen or bigger HA molecules are not able to go through outer layer of the skin. With differin and similar treatments usually alcohol has to help with transport of active ingredients or to dissolve substances since some substances can be dissolved only in selected products like alcohol, glycerin, etc.
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Earthmama user profile picture

Earthmama

Oily/Sensitive

thank you so much for the clarification!
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BlueNWhite user profile picture

BlueNWhite

Dry/Sensitive

I'm not familiar with this product therefore please take my comment with a pinch of salt ๐Ÿ˜… I've been following skin enthusiast James Welsh for a while. He mentioned it'd be good to not isolate ingredients, rather focus on the entire formulation. I'm following you (@earthmama_9) on IG. I'd appreciate if you followed me too ๐Ÿ’• @blueskies8whiteclouds
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Earthmama user profile picture

Earthmama

Oily/Sensitive

ahh good thinking on following the formulation...now I just need to get more familiar with every ingredient lol instead of just the ones I already know...time to expand my skincare realm again lol. thank you and yes I am following back!
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Alatinaandagolden user profile picture
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Alatinaandagolden

Oily/Resilient

hell no. I have a rule for my skincare products. if alcohol is in the top 10 of ingredients list I only will use it ln my feet.
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Earthmama user profile picture

Earthmama

Oily/Sensitive

right...that's kinda how I feel. I just got done using it for the first time, and HOLY QUAC my face is burning, and red irritated bumps are popping up around my sensitive areas and...I CAN EVEN SMELL IT. I see why they wanted it so much though because this product was starting to feel as sticky as glue, but as ot dried, it got less tacky. the finish is very lightly tacky.
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Earthmama user profile picture

Earthmama

Oily/Sensitive

man...I really wanted to love this : ( I'll give it a real go around though and see what starts to happen. just hating this alcohol though.
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