( 1 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 21 2009
I wrote this review for[..]and am putting it here as well. First impressions: Nice smell and consistency. It absorbs into my face nicely and after a week of use, my skin feels supple and looks good. Not any different than how it looked before I used Alba, but I've experienced no irritation or unwanted breakouts. The Good: SPF 15 and lots of ingredients that contain antioxidants derived from from ocean plants: extracts of spirulina maxima (algae), ulva lactuca (sea lettuce), laminaria digitata (kelp), chondrus crispus (irish moss) and macrocystis pyrifera (kelp), citrus grandis (grapefruit) fruit and camellia sinensis (green tea). Algae is frequently used in cellulite creams for its firming abilities. The amino acids in the other sea herbs act as conditioners. Most of the other ingredients are fairly tame. Purified water, certified organic aloe barbadensis leaf juice, stearic acid (a potential irritant), carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, vegetable glycerin, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter). The Bad: This is where Alba falls down a bit. The last two ingredients are the preservatives phenoxyethanol and ethyhexylglycerin. We wrote about an FDA warning that included phenoxyethanol in 2008. At its least offensive, it's an irritant. But at higher concentrations it has the potential to cause reproductive damage and other problems. It is in a lot of products, and shows up towards the bottom of this Alba moisturizer so there isn't much in there, but there's some. Ethylhexylglycerin is often used instead of parabens (which is nice), but is another potential irritant, albeit with fewer potential side effects than phenoxyethanol.
