What ingredients are in your African American skin care product?

 

There are many cosmetics out there, so how do you tell apart the good from the bad? Well, one thing you may want to do is check the ingredients of African American skin care products before buying them. The ones that contain antioxidant-rich ingredients such as pomegranate and green tea are things you should be looking for, while there are certain ingredients you should avoid.

First, products that contain extracts of green tea and pomegranate (which are good sources of antioxidants) are particularly good for the skin. Discovery Health explains the benefits of these substances on their website.

"Antioxidants are nutrients (vitamins and minerals) and enzymes (proteins inside your body) that can help to prevent and repair damage to your body's tissue. Antioxidants do this by slowing or preventing the effect of free radicals, which start oxidation - a process that causes damage from oxygen that can lead to cell dysfunction," stated Discovery Health.

Those are the things you should be looking for, but what should you avoid? Products with hydroquinone may be damaging, so steer clear of them. This skin-lightening ingredient has been called a possible carcinogen and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed a ban on products that contain it in 2006, according to MedicineNet.com