Gluten in Cosmetics?

A lot of people have asked me about gluten-free cosmetics. I only buy gluten-free shampoo and conditioner, because my reaction to those is immediate, but I'm a little flaky when it comes to anything else. If I can find a gluten-free anything, I'll probably buy it. Eyeliner, eyeshadow, especially lipstick. I don't exclusively buy gluten-free products, but I make sure not to buy things that are specifically gluten-ized. You know, oatmeal-infused hand lotion and things like that.

So my January Ipsy bag came in the mail, and I wasn't as blown away as I was last time. There was a moisturizer, a three-in-one moisturizer-serum-toner, a stick of eyeshadow, a tinted lip gloss and a leave-in conditioner.


Let's take a closer look at that conditioner.

Soy Tri-Wheat Leave In Conditioner. I'm sure it's an amazing product. It probably makes your hair feel amazing, but I started having heart palpitations just looking at it. Out of curiosity, I read the ingredients. Wheat was listed three times. I guess that's what they mean by tri-wheat. I gave it to my mom, and I'm sure she'll love it.

I was tempted to try using it, just to see what happens, but it makes me very nervous just holding it, and I'm fairly sure I know how I would react.

It's funny looking back and noticing the little things. I used to have crazy bad dandruff, almost constantly. It would get better and worse, but when it was the worst, huge hunks of dead skin would come out of my scalp, and at it's very best, I just had itchy, dry scalp. I switched to a gluten-free shampoo and it was gone, instantly. I switched back a few times, just using my old stuff once here and there, and every time my dandruff came right back.

I used to have this rash on my hands. Certain spots on my fingers would get this really gross rash that sounds a lot like Dermatitis Herpetiformis, but I only ever got it on my hands. When I stopped handling gluten products, it cleared up and only came back once, after I was handling bread products.

I also used to have dry hands that were so dry they would crack, and I would put lotion on them several times a day, but it would take awhile to get better. The lotion by my bedside (and probably the one I used the most) was an oatmeal-infused one.

Beyond that, I don't really know. I don't seem to have a problem with products that fall into that grey area of not directly containing gluten, but not being gluten-free, other than shampoo and conditioner. Although it's also possible my scalp reacts to parabens, sulfates or some other chemical that is also not in my new products.

So I guess that's that when it comes to gluten-free cosmetics. In time, I may switch to completely gluten-free products, but for the time being, I'll just toe this line and try to figure out what makes my body happy.