Petroleum Jelly

Petroleum jelly (also known as soft paraffin) is a mixture of hydrocarbons and often found in a semi solid form. In its purest form, it is colorless and odorless, however, when not refined properly, this inflammable mixture appears pale yellow in color. Petroleum jelly is well-known for its healing properties and has been used for personal as well as commercial applications. Due to its many useful properties like water insolubility or not getting oxidized when exposed to air, petroleum jelly is one of the most commonly used ingredients in many skin care products like moisturizers, lotions, baby oils, etc. Besides these, it is also used as a topical ointment for curing minor injuries.

Uses of Petroleum Jelly

For its skin caring and protecting abilities, soft paraffin is often applied on the hands before doing some messy works like coloring hair, painting, gardening, etc. It doesn't let the color to absorb into your skin and is also easy to wipe it off. It serves as the best moisturizer for your body. Especially in winters, when most of us get chapped lips, dry hands and feet, if applied regularly, you will always have smooth, soft and lovely skin. Moreover, it is a safe cosmetic to use as it helps to remove makeup more efficiently and smoothly. Also when applied on lips or cheeks, this skin care product gives a radiant dewy shiny glow to your skin. According to many people, petroleum jelly when applied every night before going to bed help in growing long, stronger and thick eyelashes.

Besides these skin care benefits, petroleum jelly is used for its easy-to-wipe off properties, and also to add some shine to the shoes, purses and boats. As it possesses some amazing healing properties, pure petroleum jelly is often used to heal cuts and burns by protecting the wounds from other infections or contamination. For its lubricating properties, it is used to repair a noisy door hinge or to smoothly glide off a stuck ring in your finger. Another extraordinary property of petroleum jelly is that it lengthens the life of a perfume. Just dab a small amount of petroleum jelly on your pulse points and spray on the perfume. Your perfume fragrance will last for a very long time.

Dangers of Using Petroleum Jelly

We all are well aware of its healing and moisturizing properties, but what we don't know is that the layers of jelly we apply on our skin somehow blocks the pores of the skin to release toxins and moisture. As a result, after a certain period of time a person may start developing skin disorders like acne, itchiness, irritation, etc. Also one should avoid the use of petroleum jelly close to the nose as it can interfere with the nose's ability to naturally scrub the air we inhale and so can lead to lung infections. Moreover, it includes ingredients like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or the PAH, 1,3-butadiene and ethylene oxide which have been associated with mammary tumors or breast cancer.

To sum up, we can say that excess of anything is bad for health and so it is applicable for petroleum jelly as well. Hence, make sure you don't overuse it and use it only for external purposes.