Dermatologists used to consider Vaseline and Aquaphor the greatest skin-care products going—and many still do. These workhorses protect and strengthen the skin barrier. After a chemical peel, laser treatment, or surgery, a coating of the stuff helps the healing process. Petrolatum, the key ingredient, has been around forever, but many people still give it the side-eye. That’s because it’s a by-product of the sludgy, messy, environmentally damaging process of refining crude oil. The popular Yuka app, which rates cosmetics and foods for health concerns, gives Vaseline a score of 0 out of 10 because petroleum can be contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, a known human carcinogen. But the petrolatum used in cosmetics, including Vaseline, is treated and refined multiple times to eliminate any chance of contamination. Clearly, it has a P.R. problem—and cosmetic chemist Javon Ford is here to give it a glow-up.
Petroleum jelly, or Vaseline, helps heal wounds to an extent. It locks in 99 percent of moisture and keeps it there—and that’s supported by data. In other words, it’s pretty much the strongest occlusive we have. That’s how it helps with wounds; it keeps the area clean of particulates from the air and other debris.
