Aloe vera gel ingredients?

**Chamy** · July 7th, 2009, 10:16 AM

Hello everyone, i have an ingredients question that i hope someone might have something to say about.

I live in sweden and i have been looking for a pure aloe vera gel but i havent found one. What i have found is a avg with ingredients list:
-Aloe Barbadensis
-Carbomer
-Phenoxyethanol
-Ethylhexylglycerin
-Sodium hydroxide

Can any of these ingredients be harmful or drying for the hair. I am trying to decide if i should buy it or keep looking for something better.
If it isnt any good, do you have any advice on what brand i should buy instead?

**Moonstruck** · July 7th, 2009, 03:03 PM

Fruit of the Earth is reputed to be a good brand, but I'm not sure what you guys have in Sweden.

I'm no experton what should be in a good AVG gel, but Phenoxyethanol is an alcohol, and a fairly volatile/drying one at that. Probably feels great on sunburns, but not so grerat for your hair.

**florenonite** · July 7th, 2009, 05:17 PM

You won't find an 100% pure aloe gel; it needs preservatives. I would imagine that's what most of those ingredients (besides the aloe gel itself) are, but I don't know much about preservatives so I could be wrong.

**thankyousir74** · July 7th, 2009, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by florenonite

You won't find an 100% pure aloe gel; it needs preservatives. I would imagine that's what most of those ingredients (besides the aloe gel itself) are, but I don't know much about preservatives so I could be wrong.

Same opinion here, I just got the one that had Aloe vera as the second ingredient (second only to water) as well as no cones

**Anje** · July 7th, 2009, 06:33 PM

Aloe Barbadensis The good stuff.
Carbomer Thickener (aloe on its own is runny)
Phenoxyethanol Preservative
Ethylhexylglycerin Wasn't familiar with this one, but it looks like a preservative that's used as an alternative to parabens. link
Sodium hydroxide Used to tweak the pH.

**Norai** · July 7th, 2009, 06:47 PM

Preservatives are a good thing if you don't want mold growing in your aloe after a week

**HotRag** · July 8th, 2009, 09:29 AM

From crearome.se:

Phenoxyglycerin konservering
Nytt koserveringsmedel baserat på 90% Phenoxyethanol och 10% Ethylhexylglycerin vilket gör det mera affektivt mot bakterier. Används med 0,5-1% i alla typer av produkter och kan ersätta paraben.

In English (now I will show lousy in translation...):
New preservative based on 90 % Phenoxyethanol and 10 % Ethylhexylglycerin, which makes it more effective against bacterias. Is used with 0.5-1 % in all types of products and can be used instead of paraben.

I am about to try this instead of paraben next time I'll buy preservatives.

Carbomer is a synthetic thickener. You can read about thickeners on www.shenet.se, search for carbomer or förtjockare.

For myself, I buy Aloe99 aloegel. I haven't tried any else, but have heard all good about this one. Also, I think, some are using Jason aloegel, but I hav not tried that.
Aloe99 do not leave any "residue" on skin/hair, like my home made one that is thickened with xanthan :@

**Chamy** · July 9th, 2009, 10:14 AM

The gel contains 99,4% pure aloe vera. I have no idea if that's to little or good, haha.

I will look for Aloe99 the next time i go shopping. It really is harder than i thought to find avg where i live.

**HotRag** · July 9th, 2009, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by Chamy

The gel contains 99,4% pure aloe vera. I have no idea if that's to little or good, haha.

I will look for Aloe99 the next time i go shopping. It really is harder than i thought to find avg where i live.

Buy online

I almost never really go to stores anymore. Just some.