Formaldehyde Names Found in Beauty Products

Formaldehyde has many names and is found in many items, including beauty products. This Wednesday Ask the Pro Stylist follows up with last week’s beauty question regarding gel nails and a formaldehyde allergy.

Happy Hump Day beauty lovers, hair aficionados and nail fashionistas, and welcome to another edition of your beauty questions answered. This week’s advice is a follow up of last week’s query when Teresa wanted formaldehyde-free, gel nail polish alternatives.

Deirdre,

Thank you so much for looking into that for me!  I am not a nail tech, but have been doing my own nails for more than 15 years now because I cannot afford to have someone else do them; that, and I like to play with my nails! LOL.

I am a student, caregiver and sole fundraiser for my hubby.  It is hard to do this balancing act, my husband has a rare form of cancer and the smell is something he can’t take when it comes to the acrylics.

I need to find someone who would like to buy a huge tub of clear gel that I now cannot use due to my formaldehyde allergy, really a bummer!  I usually purchase a clear base of acrylics or gel and then add my own color and glitter to them.  I have included a picture of my nails that I just finished today!  I think out of all of the links you sent me the Eco Nails are the best and when I get the money I will try them. When I am reading these labels what is it that I need to look out for?

Thanks again!

Teresa -Sams Valley Oregon

Thanks again for writing in Teresa. Unfortunately, formaldehyde is known by many names when considering beauty products. I found a few correlating websites and have linked and listed what they all concur. Dermnetnz.com suggests reading product labels and avoiding not only formaldehyde itself, but also formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. Some of these are known by the following names:

• Uaternium-15
• 2-bromo-2nitropropane-1, 3-diol
• Imidazolidinyl urea
• Diazolidinyl urea

Formaldehyde is also known by several other names. These include:

• Formalin
• Methanal
• Methyl aldehyde
• Methylene oxide
• Morbicid acid
• Oxymethylene

Ask.com:

• Quaternium-15
• 2-bromo-2nitropropane-1, 3-diol
• Imidazolidinyl urea
• Methyl aldehyde
• Morbicid acid
• Oxymethylene.

Wikipedia

• Urea formaldehyde resin
• Melamine resin
• Phenol formaldehyde resin
• Polyoxymethylene plastics
• 1,4-butanediol
• Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate
• Pentaerythritol
• Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate
• Diazolidinyl urea.

Each of the three websites had similar reports on formaldehyde. When unsure, do a patch test as you have in the past. And if anyone wants to purchase Teresa’s tub of clear gel nail polish, please email me.

If you have a similar beauty question to Teresa’s formaldehyde query that you would like to see featured here on Wednesday, please email me at DeirdreAHaggerty@gmail.com.

©Deirdre Haggerty, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this article may be reproduced without prior written permission and consent from the author.