13 Silicone Myths, Busted

00:04 Trina Renea: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Facially Conscious podcast.

00:13 Rebecca Gadberry: I'm Rebecca Gadberry.

00:14 Trina Renea: And I am Trina Renea, and we are here together to give you an episode on silicone myths.

00:24 Rebecca Gadberry: Silicone myths? 

00:26 Trina Renea: What in the world is a silicone? 

00:30 Rebecca Gadberry: Okay. First of all…

00:31 Trina Renea: Hi, Rebecca. 

00:31 Rebecca Gadberry: Hi, darling. Before we go into this, I just want to cue everybody at home. There are 13 myths that we are going to address and we're going to try to do it in 20 to 30 minutes. 

00:43 Trina Renea: I'll keep you on track, girl. 

00:44 Rebecca Gadberry: So we're going to go fast. If you have to replay something, replay it, but we're going to pound this out. Ready? Go.

What's a silicone? A silicone is... 

00:55 Trina Renea: Oh, you're going right into it.

00:56 Rebecca Gadberry: I am. 

00:57 Trina Renea: Okay, let's go. 

00:59 Rebecca Gadberry: You said, “I want to get this done,” so let's get this done. 

01:02 Trina Renea: Well, wait. Do the intro. 

01:04 Rebecca Gadberry: What intro?

01:05 Trina Renea: There's this intro, what are silicones and why are they used in cosmetics? So what are silicones?

01:13 Rebecca Gadberry: Silicones are what we call polymers. And what is a polymer? It is ‘poly’ means many, ‘mer’ means unit. It's many repeating units of the same basic molecule. So they're larger molecules. 

And silicones are taken from something called silicon, which is the second most abundant material or element in the earth. It's silicon and oxygen, another abundant element. 

Okay. That leads us into some other questions that you're about to ask me. 

01:46 Trina Renea: So, silicone is the name of an ingredient? 

01:49 Rebecca Gadberry: No. Silicone is the name of a chemical family. Remember, another word for ingredient is chemical. So, when I say chemical, I'm talking ingredients as well. Silicones are the name of a family of polymers or large molecules that are taken from silicon and oxygen. 

02:11 Trina Renea: So it's a spreading— it makes things feel good?

02:13 Rebecca Gadberry: Well let's talk about what it does. 

02:14 Trina Renea: All right. That's all I know about it. 

02:17 Rebecca Gadberry: Okay. So, where are they found? They are found in the laboratory, in the manufacturing facility. So they are synthetic. They are man-made.

02:26 Trina Renea: So they aren’t natural?

02:28 Rebecca Gadberry: They do not occur in nature, and there's nothing like a silicone that occurs in nature that's made from silicon and oxygen. 

Another ingredient that we know of that's taken from silicon is glass. 

02:43 Trina Renea: And they make it in the lab, the silicones.

02:46 Rebecca Gadberry: They make silicones in laboratories, and there's a whole variety of silicones. We can have really thin silicone fluids. You know how motor oil can be thin or thick and you vary it depending on other parts of the world. In California, which is where we are, you might use a thin motor oil or a thick motor oil, depending upon the climate or the weather.

Well, silicones can be very thin. They can be very thick. They can be so thick that they sit on the surface of the skin, but we don't use those at 100%. We use those at very low percentages, maybe 1%, 2%, maybe even 3%. We don't usually use silicones at their full strength. As a matter of fact, I know very few products that do and they don't really stay on the surface of the skin very long. 

03:37 Trina Renea: Okay. So, this is something that I've heard. Silicones are cheap fillers and they don't do anything for the skin. 

03:45 Rebecca Gadberry: Right. Silicones are not cheap, first of all, and they are not fillers. To me, what a filler is— I mean, what is a filler to you? Let me ask you that. What does that mean? 

03:58 Trina Renea: To me, a filler is something you put in your face to make it fatter. 

04:04 Rebecca Gadberry: You've been doing Facially Conscious too long. 

04:07 Trina Renea: Well, since you said filler, that's what I thought.

04:10 Rebecca Gadberry: Like a hyaluronic acid filler or…

04:11 Trina Renea: Yes.

04:13 Rebecca Gadberry: No, that's not what they are. You put it in a product.

04:14 Trina Renea: You mean to fill the jar. So I would say a filler to me is water. Water fills the jar. No?

04:22 Rebecca Gadberry: It fills up the formula. To me, a filler is used to take space in a product or a formulation, but it doesn't do anything. Now, to me…

04:33 Trina Renea: Why would you have that in a formula? 

04:35 Rebecca Gadberry: Well, to me, what a filler is is like a performance ingredient, that's a big-name ingredient but you don't use enough of it because it's so expensive so it just gets you to buy the product but it's not doing anything. To me, that's a filler. 

Silicones have a number of reasons why you might use them in a product. If they're thin silicones, they may be in there in order to apply an even layer of, let's say, a sunscreen or an alpha-hydroxy acid or a salicylic acid or a retinol, that if it pocketed on the skin, if it was concentrated on certain parts of the skin and not on others, could cause irritation. Silicones can lower the irritation potential of a product by making sure that the ingredient that would cause the irritation is spread evenly over the skin.

05:25 Trina Renea: They're not going into one spot. Okay. 

05:27 Rebecca Gadberry: Right. They're also used in sunscreens to make sure that the sunscreen ingredients apply evenly over the skin, so you don't get pockets of protection and pockets of not being protected so that's where you will burn. 

05:41 Trina Renea: So it's a very useful ingredient. 

05:44 Rebecca Gadberry: Very useful. We also use them to lubricate the skin as you apply the product. And then a lot of these silicones evaporate within one to two minutes and so all you're left with is a very soft feel to the skin. Some of them are used as waterproofing. And maybe in that sunscreen that you wanted to apply evenly, well, some of the silicones may be repelling water as well, because silicones are water resistant. 

06:12 Trina Renea: Are they sustainable?

06:14 Rebecca Gadberry: They are sustainable because they come from silicon, the second most abundant chemical or element on the planet, and oxygen, another abundant element. So they're very sustainable. 

06:25 Trina Renea: I thought it was made in the lab. You said it comes from the planet. 

06:28 Rebecca Gadberry: Yeah, but we have to take it as a source material to bring it into the lab. We don't just make something in the lab from... 

06:36 Trina Renea: Nothing. 

06:38 Rebecca Gadberry: Nothing, from a vacuum. We have to have source ingredients, source materials. The source material for silicones are silicon and oxygen. 

They also can form breathable films, so you can put like 1% or 2% on the skin and it can act as a protectant, a skin protectant, against the elements, against harsh weather. As a matter of fact, the FDA says that that would be an over-the-counter drug. They're actually regulated to do that. 

07:05 Trina Renea: So are they biodegradable? 

07:07 Rebecca Gadberry: No, and the reason they're not biodegradable is because they cannot be eaten. What is biodegradable? What does that mean? Do you know what that means? We bandy it around as if we know what it means, but what does it mean? 

07:22 Trina Renea: That it goes back into the earth and becomes one with the earth?

07:26 Rebecca Gadberry: But how does it do that? 

07:28 Trina Renea: By going through a system that we put it through, like you bring your bottles and your things to this place and then they take it and put it somewhere else and then they melt them, I would say, maybe. 

07:40 Rebecca Gadberry: No. 

07:41 Trina Renea: Smash them, melt them.

07:42 Rebecca Gadberry: What it actually means is that microorganisms digest the material. But because silicones are not digestible and microorganisms can't eat them, they're not biodegradable. That doesn't mean they're not degradable, though. They are degradable. I know. This is what I found out. 

08:00 Trina Renea: What does that mean? 

08:02 Rebecca Gadberry: They are degradable by sunlight and water. As a matter of fact, some of these silicones degrade within one day to maybe three years, depending upon the environment it's in. But because our systems for determining, or our procedures for determining how long a chemical lasts in the environment has been based on biodegradability, and these are not biodegradable, we haven't really got standardized tests yet to determine how long they last. What we've been able to determine, and this is just in the last year or two, is that they degrade, but they degrade in different ways than microorganisms.

It also means that silicones are inert. Because they're not eaten, they are inert to the body. So if they go in the body, they don't react with any systems in the body. They are extremely safe. 

08:55 Trina Renea: Well, some people say that silicones are like microplastics. 

08:59 Rebecca Gadberry: They are not microplastics. Plastic is actually organic. Silicones are not organic, meaning that there's no carbon in them. Plastics are carbon-based, but silicones are not. They're silicon-based and so they are not plastic and they don't degrade into microplastics. That's impossible for a silicone to degrade into a microplastic. 

I've also heard that silicones are rubber. No, they're not rubber. Rubber is from a tree. These are not rubber. They may be rubbery, but that's as the pure ingredient, not when you put them into a product.

09:37 Trina Renea: So, how do you get them off the skin? They say silicones can't be removed from the skin. 

09:43 Rebecca Gadberry: Yeah, I don't know who's trying to remove them, but they're very simple to remove.

09:45 Trina Renea: You just wash them off.

09:46 Rebecca Gadberry: You just wash them off. Now, they are water resistant, like I said, so if you just try to wash them off with water and it's a full-strength silicone, which I don't know who's out there selling a full-strength silicone, but they would be difficult to remove. 

But at the lower percentage, and most of these, the highest I've seen a silicone for the skin is between 20% and 25%. Most of them are used between 1% and 5%. So when we use them at that low, you can just use a simple facial cleanser to remove them. Micellar water can also remove them. 

Some companies are saying or some influencers are saying, use an oil to remove them, but silicones are also not oil soluble. So if you use an oil to remove them, you're not going to remove it with the oil. Just use a simple facial cleanser that foams and you're going to get it off the skin. 

10:45 Trina Renea: Then that brings me to this. Are they pore clogging? Do they clog pores and cause breakouts because they're sitting on the surface and not rinseable? 

10:54 Rebecca Gadberry: Well, an ingredient that causes a breakout, as we've talked about, about pore-clogging ingredients or comedogenic ingredients in past podcasts, those ingredients need to sink into the pore and they need to react with oxygen in a process called oxidation. Silicones don't oxidize so they can't clog your pores, because they don't react with the oxygen. 

11:18 Trina Renea: Interesting. Are they toxic?

11:21 Rebecca Gadberry: No, they're not toxic. What is toxicity? They're not poisonous. They're not toxic, and they don't cause any genetic changes because they are inert. 

11:32 Trina Renea: Okay, because I've heard that when they're in cosmetics, they can cause rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, chronic fatigue, cancers. 

11:45 Rebecca Gadberry: Okay. Remember when I said they were polymers? Polymers are larger molecules. They're too large to penetrate the skin. 

11:52 Trina Renea: The silicones. 

11:53 Rebecca Gadberry: Right, so they don't sensitize. They're not allergens when they're applied topically, and silicone allergy is very rare anyway. They are inert, so they don't react with your biology. They're not irritants. As a matter of fact, they act opposite to irritants when you're applying irritating ingredients. They do not cause rheumatoid arthritis or anything like that. 

That could be certain silicones that were used in breast implants 20 or 30 years ago. I think 30 or 40 years ago, actually. But that's when they enter the body and the silicone leaks. We actually now allow silicone back on the market in breast implants. It doesn't react the same way when you apply it to the skin. As everybody has heard me say repeatedly around here, things that are applied to the skin, once it penetrates, frequently, the ingredient becomes a different molecule.

Silicones don't even penetrate so they can't become a different molecule. 

12:51 Trina Renea: Right. They just sit on the surface, which is also why they don't clog your pores. 

12:55 Rebecca Gadberry: And they're cruelty free and they're vegan. 

12:59 Trina Renea: Are they allergens, though? 

13:00 Rebecca Gadberry: No, because in order to create an allergy, you have to penetrate past the skin's barrier, which they don't. 

13:06 Trina Renea: But people get allergens on the surface of their skin from stuff. 

13:10 Rebecca Gadberry: Right, but that's because…

13:10 Trina Renea: But that's because it penetrated?

13:11 Rebecca Gadberry: It can penetrate or it can set up an immune response with the skin below the barrier. Silicones don't penetrate the barriers so they can't set up an immune response. 

13:21 Trina Renea: Which means they wouldn't be irritating either. 

13:24 Rebecca Gadberry: That's right. 

13:26 Trina Renea: And so because they're sitting on the surface and they're a little water resistant and just sitting up there, do they suffocate the skin? Can the skin breathe through them? 

13:37 Rebecca Gadberry: Actually, there was an interesting test done with a silicone film back in the 1940s. And this is legend now. I have it on good whatever, I forget the word right now, but I have it on good authority that this test actually happened. But then I've heard from other people later on that it didn't. 

But here's what they did. Some scientists working with the silicone film back in the 1940s, around the time that silicones started to be developed, took a canary, put it in a cage, wrapped the cage up with the silicone film and immersed the canary for like 10 hours or something. When they brought the canary back out, it was singing because the oxygen can penetrate the silicone film, showing that silicone is breathable, which it is. 

14:25 Trina Renea: Whoa, that is so cool. 

14:26 Rebecca Gadberry: Isn't that cool? Another cool thing is that you know the first silicone you probably ever came in contact with? 

14:31 Trina Renea: No. 

14:32 Rebecca Gadberry: Silly Putty. It's named Silly Putty because it's a silicone putty, not because it's silly.

14:41 Trina Renea: Oh, that's so funny. 

14:41 Rebecca Gadberry: It was originally developed back in the 1940s as a wallpaper glue or paste. But of course, because it's a fluid, the wallpaper just kept peeling off, so they had to find another use. 

And this guy comes along and he says, "You know, I think I could sell this." He put it in an egg and he called it Silly Putty. 

15:00 Trina Renea: Oh, that's so cool. That's a fun fact. 

15:03 Rebecca Gadberry: Isn't that a fun fact? 

15:04 Trina Renea: Yes. Another myth that I've heard about silicone is that it traps dirt and smog particles and makeup and irritants on the skin. 

15:18 Rebecca Gadberry: Well, that's another really good one, because if you were putting it full strength on the skin and there was dirt and makeup and smog particles underneath it, it would trap it. But, first, we don't put it full strength. And secondly, it actually keeps it from being affected by dirt and makeup and smog particles and irritants because it acts as a skin protectant. Remember when I said the FDA recognizes it as a skin protectant, certain silicones like dimethicone? It actually helps to protect. 

15:49 Trina Renea: Dimethicone they use in sunscreens.

15:55 Rebecca Gadberry: Dimethicone is used in a lot of products. 

So, how do you recognize a silicone? First of all, you're going to look for C-O-N-E. Or you're going to look for S-I-L. So silicones, sil, cone— let's see. I wrote down some other ones and I don't remember what they are. I teach this at UCLA, for goodness sakes. Let's see. 

It also helps…

16:21 Trina Renea: When you’re put on the spot, it's like…

16:24 Rebecca Gadberry: I know, plus I'm trying to do this in such a short amount of time. 

16:28 Trina Renea: We did it, though.

16:29 Rebecca Gadberry: We did it. Also, silicones have not been linked to cancer. They are not hormone disruptors. They don't have any long-term health benefits. And this is noted by Health Canada, the European Union Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety, the UK Environmental Agency, our Cosmetic Ingredient Review board in the United States, Australia. None of those agencies look at silicones as dangerous. It's the people who don't like silicones that are misrepresenting silicones.

17:04 Trina Renea: Why wouldn't people like silicones? 

17:06 Rebecca Gadberry: Silicones are used in almost half the products that we have. So if you want to go up against a big company that's using silicones and you want to make a name for yourself, you're going to say silicones are bad. Or you're going to find reasons to sell bad news. 

And I've said that repeatedly. This is one of the reasons why I don't like selling things, selling against something. I like using something that's good, as opposed to selling against something that's bad. This goes back into that. 

So, there have been some studies…

17:36 Trina Renea: They're scare tactics. 

17:38 Rebecca Gadberry: Scare tactics. And there have been some studies that were found that silicones lasted in the environment or persisted in the environment for 50 to 500 years before they break down completely into silica. That may be true, but that's in those specific environments. When you add water and you add certain types of soil and you add heat and sunlight, they break down a lot faster. 

So, you can cite different studies, and some studies will say that they break down fast, other studies say that they don't, but the studies that are realistic are the ones where we're looking at it in heat, sunlight and water, because that's where they actually do break down, and in soil. 

18:27 Trina Renea: Interesting. Okay. Well, that's a really good insight in silicones. 

18:34 Rebecca Gadberry: Thank you. 

18:35 Trina Renea: And things that are misunderstood about them. It sounds like you like them. 

18:43 Rebecca Gadberry: I use them quite a bit, and I have for years. Before we could use silicones, products were very clumpy. They didn't apply smoothly. In the world now, we've got products, especially moisturizers and serums, that just slip over the skin. 

19:06 Trina Renea: I love that feeling. 

19:07 Rebecca Gadberry: Me too. To me, they feel like little ball bearings on the skin. They're so slippery and they spread so evenly. You don't need a lot of product, it doesn't clump up, it gives your skin an extreme softness and a really soft texture. Those are good reasons to be using a product. 

When we take those silicones out, we have to use things like esters to replace them, which is another chemical class. Silicones are one chemical class, esters are another, and esters can clog the pores. Silicones don't. What are we moving towards to replace them? 

So, what are you looking for in the name to identify a silicone? S-I-L, C-O-N-E at the end of the word. S-I-L at the beginning or the middle of the word. 

Siloxane, although not all siloxanes are silicones, but they're in the silicone family. And conols, C-O-N-O-L. Look for those kinds of endings. 

20:07 Trina Renea: Conol is an ending for a silicone? 

20:09 Rebecca Gadberry: Yeah, dimethiconol would be an ingredient. And dimethiconol is used in a lot of cleansers or shampoos in order to make foam less bulky. It concentrates it. It makes it denser, so you think that you're getting a nice, rich foam. 

20:26 Trina Renea: I love that. All right. 

20:31 Rebecca Gadberry: We did it?

20:32 Trina Renea: I think we can be done with that today. 

20:34 Rebecca Gadberry: Okay. So let's do away with the freaking out over silicones. 

20:38 Trina Renea: Yeah, everybody. Stop freaking because you know those products that you just love the feel of, look on the label. I guarantee you it has silicones. 

20:48 Rebecca Gadberry: That's right, and there's nothing wrong with silicones. They are absolutely safe. 

20:54 Trina Renea: Period.

20:55 Rebecca Gadberry: Yes. 

20:56 Trina Renea: And thank you. 

20:57 Rebecca Gadberry: Thank you. Bye. 

20:57 Trina Renea: Thanks, Rebecca. Goodbye. Bye, everyone.

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