# papain enzyme in cosmetics safe?



## poptop (Dec 7, 2009)

Hi,

I'm not sure if this should go under complementary therapies so apologies if posting in wrong place.

I'm 28 weeks pregnant and I've just bought a new facial moisturiser which i thought seemed fine to use while pregnant (scoured the ingredients for ages before buying!). But just noticed this it contains papaya enzyme (Carbomer/papin crosspolymer) which I'm now thinking isn't good to use during pregnancy as it can cause contractions. It appears faily low down on the list of ingredients so it may not contain a very large amount, but even so am a bit worried as I've been using it twice a aday for the last week.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks very much

Poptop x


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## mazv (Jul 31, 2006)

I'm not aware that cosmetic creams etc.. are tested in pregnancy so it's probably the same for most brands that ther is little evidence either way if they are perfectly safe or not. Saying that the base ingredients (fats/oils) in most cosmetics are not known to be harmful. I would suspect that the amount of enzyme contained is too little to have any effect, absorption across the full thickenss of the skin into the blood stream is not usually associated with significant side effects.

Upshot is impossible to say and it's personal choice whether to use or not.
Maz x


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## poptop (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks Mazv! x


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