Anti-irritants make up another vital aspect of any skin-care formulation. Regardless of the source, irritation is a problem for all skin types, yet it is almost impossible to avoid. Whether it is from the sun, oxidative damage from pollution, the environment, or from the skin-care products a person uses, irritation can be a constant assault on the skin. Ironically, even such necessary ingredients as sunscreen agents, preservatives, exfoliants, and cleansing agents can cause irritation. Other ingredients, like fragrance, menthol, and sensitizing plant extracts, are primary irritants and are almost always void of genuine benefits for skin, so using them is a negative, at least if you’re serious about creating and maintaining healthy skin.
Anti-irritants are incredibly helpful because they allow skin healing time. They can also reduce the problems caused by oxidative and other sources of external damage. Anti-irritants include substances such as allantoin, aloe, bisabolol, burdock root, chamomile extract, glycyr – rhetinic acid, grape extract, green tea, licorice root, vitamin C, white willow, willow bark, willowherb, and many, many more. Their benefit to skin should be strongly considered, because this is that rare case where too much of a good thing is better!