Is Petroleum Jelly Good for Skin?

Petroleum Jelly is effective to keep moisture in your skin.

What is Petroleum Jelly?

Petroleum jelly is an oil-based product and is a mixture of mineral oils and waxes. It forms a semisolid jelly-like substance. Petroleum jelly’s advantages come from its main ingredient petroleum. This seals your skin with a water-protective barrier and also helps in healing and retaining moisture to your skin. Petroleum Jelly is effective to keep moisture in your skin.

Benefits of vaseline on face

1. Petroleum Jelly in Alleviating itching:

A skin condition that causes patches of dry, flaky, and itchy skin is known as Atopic dermatitis. This condition causes itching to the skin. Therefore many dermatologists recommend petroleum jelly as a cream to treat atopic dermatitis. As petroleum jelly is known for retaining moisture in the skin, as an ointment it seals the moisture in the skin by reducing dry skin and flakiness of skin that causes itching. Hence petroleum jelly alleviates itching by retaining moisture back to the skin.

2. Petroleum Jelly in relieving dry skin:

Dry skin causes flaking, itching, cracking, and even bleeding in affected areas. To relieve dry skin, lips, and eyelids petroleum jelly is best suitable for each skin type. Petroleum jelly acts as an ointment that is more effective for irritated body parts which are dry and flaky and is much more effective than any lotions and creams.

3. Petroleum Jelly in removing makeup:

As you know oil is an effective way to remove any kind of makeup, so people generally use oil-based micellar water to remove makeup from their faces. And petroleum jelly is an oil-based jelly substance that is safe as well as easy to use. So one can use petroleum jelly to remove eye and face makeup without leaving moisture on your face.

4. Petroleum Jelly in preventing chafing of skin:

The skin irritation that is caused when body parts are rubbed together or rubbed against clothing and is painful or irritative is known as chafing. Chafing is usually caused due to tight wearing clothes, so to prevent chafing of the skin one can apply petroleum jelly to the affected areas between thighs and feet. Chafing also leads to blistering to the skin so to avoid this petroleum jelly is the best solution as it provides moisture to the skin which recovers the affected areas of skin to normal.

5. Petroleum Jelly in moisturising face, hands, and body:

As petroleum jelly is a moisturising substance, one can apply a post-shower which prevents skin from drying out completely. Petroleum jelly helps lock in moisture and accelerates the healing of skin irritation.

You may be suffering from cracked heels and here petroleum jelly works wonders for your cracked heels only by following a few steps. When you are troubled with cracked heels just the steps you should follow is by soaking your feet in warm with some added salt to it. Remove the feet from the warm water, dry them with a towel thoroughly and finally apply petroleum jelly to your feet.

6. Petroleum Jelly in healing chapped lips:

You are often dealing with leaking your lips again and again leaving moisture from your causing it to dry. This leads to chapped lips. Petroleum jelly, when applied to chapped lips, retains back moisture to your lips leaving them shiny, soft, and smooth.

7. Petroleum Jelly in removing stains to your skin:

You may like applying nail polish but may get irritated with the few stains left on your fingers or hands while applying. In the same way for hair dye too. We like to colour hair and have different colours to flaunt your hair with varieties of highlights and dyeing but may end up full up stains on hands. But you need not worry, petroleum jelly is the best thing everyone likes and affords at home. This simple thing helps to prevent staining from your skin. Just apply petroleum once you are done with nail polish and hair dyeing application and wipe it away with the tissue. You are done with staining away your skin.

How to use vaseline on the face?

It is best to apply petroleum jelly/vaseline to clean and damp the face/skin. Also, the best time to apply the petroleum jelly is after showering or after washing your face, hands, and other affected body parts. Before applying petroleum jelly products you should wash your hands thoroughly with soap or hand wash to avoid carrying any bacteria or germs to your face or other skin areas. And now you can apply petroleum jelly and sit back and enjoy soothing and supple moisturised skin.

Though petroleum jelly has many benefits, you should not use it as an every-minute thing. You should avoid putting petroleum jelly on your face if you have acne-prone skin, as this will only cause breakouts in most people. 

Is vaseline good for dry skin on face

Petroleum jellies such as vaseline are recommended by doctors/dermatologists to treat various skin care problems. Vaseline is mostly used for treating skin dryness be it on the face, skin, lips, and hands. Vaseline is also safe to use around the eyes. It forms a protective outer layer on the skin, keeps the skin moist all the time, and protects it from sun exposure and pollution too. The other benefit is, it is safe to use, mostly suits all skin types, and is easily available in the market.

Vaseline on face for wrinkles

Wrinkles are formed due to ageing, dehydration, and also when moisture is lost. Vaseline itself doesn't diminish the wrinkles in a snap. It helps keep the skin moist all the time, protects it from external barriers that are harmful to the skin, and keeps it hydrated, which helps in slowing down the ageing process of the skin and stops the skin from getting fine lines and wrinkles. It also keeps the face toned and refreshed.

Does vaseline help with hyperpigmentation?

As mentioned earlier, vaseline or petroleum jellies don't have anything to do with skin colour. They only protect the skin's texture and keep it moisturized. For some people, it showed skin whitening and for others, it made their skin darker. But there is no scientific proof that vaseline plays a role in treating hyperpigmentation.

Does petroleum jelly darken skin?

Usually petroleum jellies don't have anything to do with the skin colour. The nature of the petroleum jelly is to lock the moisture on the skin by forming a protective layer. During this time, when it comes in contact with any other harmful chemicals or pollution then it might lead to a reaction that can sometimes cause skin darkening in some people and that is also totally based on their skin type.

Potential side effects

Although vaseline is the best for winter dryness, it has a few negative effects on the skin too.

  • Redness of the skin
  • Swelling 
  • Rashes
  • Itchy skin
  • Acne breakout
  • Pigmentation

Take Away 

As we know Petroleum jelly is an oil-based product that is waxy in nature helps in the healing process of wound irritated skin and affected body parts caused by chafing chapped lips, hands and eyes. It is the best in every skincare routine as it helps in removing eye and face makeup leaving the skin of the face moisturised and glowing skin. Only the thing to keep in mind is its uses and how to use it properly. Nothing can work more wonders than petroleum jelly on your dried skin.

FAQS

Can I use Vaseline on my face everyday?

As long as there are side-effects, one continues to use the vaseline everyday to keep their skin moist.

Can petroleum jelly lighten dark spots?

There’s no proper research or proof that petroleum jelly lightens dark spots. It’s not true, because petroleum jelly doesn't have any ingredients that help in removing dark spots.

Is petroleum jelly good for your complexion?

As mentioned earlier, Petroleum doesn't play a role in skin complexion. Rather, it just helps the skin be moist and acts as a protective barrier.

Is petroleum jelly harmful to the skin?

The answer is no, as long as you have used the right product and you are not on any sort of medical condition or using mixed skincare regime.

References:

The benefits and limits of using vaseline on your face. By Healthline, Jun 24, 2019.

Vaseline for Hyperpigmentation: Does it actually work? By Dr. Justin Boey, Oct 2022.

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