What is in your Aloe Vera Gel?!

According to my latest discovery…the aloe vera gel many Americans buy to soothe damaged skin contains no evidence of aloe vera at all!

“Samples of store-brand aloe gel purchased at national retailers Wal-Mart, Target and CVS showed no indication of the plant in various lab tests. The products all listed aloe barbadensisleaf juice — another name for aloe vera — as either the No. 1 ingredient or No. 2 after water.” (Bloomberg 22 November 2016)

The FDA is not monitoring cosmetics so that means we basically have to trust what is put on the packages at the stores…yikes!

“Aloe’s three chemical markers — acemannan, malic acid and glucose — were absent in the tests for Wal-Mart, Target and CVS products conducted by a lab hired by Bloomberg News. The three samples contained a cheaper element called maltodextrin, a sugar sometimes used to imitate aloe. The gel that’s sold at another retailer, Walgreens, contained one marker, malic acid, but not the other two. That means the presence of aloe can’t be confirmed or ruled out, said Ken Jones, an independent industry consultant based in Chapala, Mexico.” (Bloomberg 22 November 2016)

Another issue we looked into was the percentages used in Aloe and how important they really are. Most of people consider the higher percentage of Aloe, the better… and undoubtedly buy it. However, you can’t truly ever know how much aloe there is in it because the aloe comes from Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract.  Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract is from aloe soaked in alcohol. So there is water, alcohol, and fragrance in Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract. When we buy Aloe gel, the thing we should care about is what is in the product not a percentage.

We can extract Aloe Barbadensis Leaf juice, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water and so on from Aloe. Among them,  Aloe Barbadensis Leaf juice has the highest purity and high-enriched ingredient.

And SMD Cosmetics alogel contains Aloe Barbadensis Leaf juice!!

So, I can proudly say our alogel has much stronger soothing and moisturizing effects than any other alogel.

SMD’s Alogel