Me
Menthol
Menthol
The cooling tingle in refreshing products. The American Academy of Dermatology lists it as one to avoid with rosacea.
What it does
The American Academy of Dermatology lists it among ingredients to avoid with rosacea, along with alcohol, camphor and fragrance. Some people find it stings skin that’s already sore.
The EU’s ingredient database lists it as a fragrance (adds scent).European Commission, CosIng (© European Union, CC BY 4.0) · uses put in plain words by Drop ↗
The evidence, graded
expert consensusMenthol is on the AAD's list of ingredients to avoid in skin care when you have rosacea. Drop holds peppermint oil, capsaicin and cinnamal alongside it during a flare, on the shared TRPV1 mechanism and on the absence of any test. No study read here applied any of the four to rosacea-prone skin.Steinhoff 2011 · Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings ↗
expert consensusIn 2023 the EU added more fragrance ingredients to the ones a label must name. Among them are lavender oil and extract, patchouli, rose, ylang-ylang, clove and sandalwood oils, terpineol and methyl salicylate. The EU says its scientific committee found these have clearly caused allergies in people. Labels name them so people who are already allergic can avoid them.EU 2023 · Official Journal of the European Union ↗
emergingMenthol switches on TRPM8, a channel that senses cold and sits on some pain- and temperature-sensing nerve cells. That is the likely source of its cooling feel. The study that found the channel tested cells, not skin products, so the cooling says nothing either way about whether a product helps skin.Peier 2002 · Cell ↗
Graded per the methodology: strong · moderate · emerging · expert consensus. A weak source on a strong claim gets the weaker label.
Also known as
l-menthol, levomenthol
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