HOW TO DETECT ALLERGY AND SENSITIVITY TO COSMETICS

The most reliable way to detect if cosmetics and skincare products are causing you problems is to stop using them altogether for at least one week and see if any improvement results. During that period, use only the minimum of basic personal hygiene products (>PERSONAL HYGIENE). Put the things you regularly use away in a box or cupboard so that you do not inhale the ingredients.

You may feel worse and have a few new symptoms (for instance, headaches, muscle aches, sometimes nausea) for the first few days when you stop using products. This is withdrawal as the chemicals clear from your body. Some people do not notice any withdrawal symptoms at all, while others can feel quite ill for a few days.

Monitor any symptoms for the week that you do not use products, allowing for withdrawal. If you experience improvement, either continue not using the products or reintroduce them one at a time, not more than one a day, preferably one per week, and see if any change in symptoms results.

If total abstinence is too radical a step for you, then you can try either not using one product for a week and then reintroducing it; or switching to a hypoallergenic alternative and trying it for a while. These are often more tolerable approaches and less disruptive, but they can give you misleading results and some people find that they end up taking more time and effort than a short, sharp programme.

Rather than buying a product before patch-testing, ask the shop assistant to apply a sample for you from a product or apply a patch from samples on display.