O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (2025)

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (1)

Hydrating moisturising hand cream

Uploaded by: cockapoohuman on

Ingredients overview

Aqua, Glycerin, Stearic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Hydroxyacetophenone, Octyldodecyl Stearate, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Paraffin Wax, Allantoin, Acrylates/​Acrylamide Copolymer, Mineral Oil, Polysorbate 85

Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (2)INCI photo pending approval

Highlights

#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free

Alcohol Free

Fragrance and Essential Oil Free

Key Ingredients

Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin

Soothing: Allantoin

Other Ingredients

Antioxidant: Hydroxyacetophenone

Buffering: Sodium Hydroxide

Emulsifying: Polysorbate 85

Moisturizer/humectant: Glycerin, Acrylates/​Acrylamide Copolymer

Perfuming: Paraffin Wax

Solvent: Aqua, Mineral Oil

Surfactant/cleansing: Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Polysorbate 85

Viscosity controlling: Stearic Acid, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Paraffin Wax

Skim through

Ingredient name what-it-does irr., com. ID-Rating
Aqua solvent
Glycerin skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant 0, 0 superstar
Stearic Acid emollient, viscosity controlling 0, 2-3
Sodium Hydroxide buffering
Hydroxyacetophenone antioxidant
Octyldodecyl Stearate emollient 0, 0
Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose surfactant/​cleansing, viscosity controlling 0, 1
Paraffin Wax viscosity controlling, perfuming
Allantoin soothing 0, 0 goodie
Acrylates/Acrylamide Copolymer moisturizer/​humectant
Mineral Oil emollient, solvent 0, 0-2
Polysorbate 85 emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands

Ingredients explained

Aqua

Also-called: Water | What-it-does: solvent

Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.

It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.

Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.

One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.

Glycerin - superstar

Also-called: Glycerol | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

  • A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
  • A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
  • Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
  • Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
  • High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin

Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

Stearic Acid

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2-3

A common multi-tasker fatty acid. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), gives body to cream type products and helps to stabilize water and oilmixes (aka emulsions).

Sodium Hydroxide

Also-called: lye | What-it-does: buffering

The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right.

For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed.

BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers.

Sodium hydroxide in itselfis a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totallyharmless.

Hydroxyacetophenone

What-it-does: antioxidant

A handy multifunctional ingredient that works as a preservative booster, as well as an antioxidant and soothingagent.

Octyldodecyl Stearate

What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (3) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

A handy helper ingredient (a polymer, i.e. big molecule from repeated subunits) that is used to stabilize emulsions as well as to thicken up products. It can also stabilize foam in cleansing products.

Paraffin Wax

What-it-does: viscosity controlling, perfuming

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (4) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Allantoin - goodie

What-it-does: soothing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.

It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.

Acrylates/​Acrylamide Copolymer

What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (5) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Mineral Oil

Also-called: Paraffinum Liquidum | What-it-does: emollient, solvent | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2

The famous or maybe rather infamous mineral oil. The clear oily liquid that is the "cheap by-product" of refining crude oil and the one that gets a lot of heat for its poor provenance. It is a very controversial ingredient with pros and cons and plenty of mythsaround it. So let us see them:

The pros of mineral oil
Trust us, if something is used for more than 100 years in cosmeticproducts, it hasadvantages. Chemically speaking, cosmetic grade mineral oil is a complex mixture ofhighly refined saturated hydrocarbons with C15-50 chain length.It is not merely a "by-product" but rather a specifically isolated part of petroleum that is very pure and inert.

It is a great emollient and moisturizer working mainly by occlusivity.Occlusivity is one of the basic mechanisms of how moisturizers work and it means that mineral oilsits on top of the skin and hinders so-called trans-epidermal water loss, i.e water evaporating out of your skin. When compared to heavy-duty plant oil, extra virgin coconut oil, the two of them were equally efficient and safe as moisturizers in treating xerosis, a skin condition connected to very dry skin.

The other thing that mineral oil is really good at is being non-irritating to the skin. The chemical composition of plant oils is more complex with many more possible allergens or irritatingcomponents, while mineral oil is simple, pureand sensitivity to it is extremely rare.If you check out the classic French pharmacy brands and their moisturizers for the most sensitive, allergy prone skin, they usually containmineral oil. This is no coincidence.

The cons of mineral oil
The pros of mineral oilcan be interpreted as cons if we look at them from another perspective. Not penetrating the skin but mostly just sitting on top of it and not containing biologically active components, like nice fatty acids and vitamins meanthat mineral oil does not "nourish" the skin in the way plant oils do. Mineral oil doesnot give the skin any extra goodness, it is simply a non-irritating moisturizer working mainly by occlusivity.

The myths around mineral oil
Badmouthing mineral oil is a favorite sport of many, it is a cheap material and being connected to petrolatum makes it fairly easy to demonize.

While it is true that industrial grade mineral oil contains carcinogenic components (so-calledpolycyclic compounds), these are completely removed from cosmetic and food grade mineral oil and there is no scientific data showing that the pure, cosmetic grade version is carcinogenic.

What is more, in terms of the general health effects of mineral oils used in cosmetics, a 2017study reviewed the data on their skin penetration and concluded that "the cosmetic use of mineral oils and waxes does not present a risk to consumers due to a lack of systemic exposure."

Another super common myth surrounding mineral oil is that it is comedogenic. A 2005 study titled"Is mineral oil comedogenic?" examined this very question and guess what happened? The study concluded that "based on the animal and human data reported, along with the AAD recommendation, it would appear reasonable to conclude that mineral oil is noncomedogenic in humans."

Overall, we feel that the scaremongering around mineral oil is not justified. For dry and super-sensitive skin types it is a great option. However, if you do not like its origin or its heavy feeling or anything else about it, avoiding it has never been easier. Mineral oil has such a bad reputation nowadays that cosmetic companies hardly dare to use it anymore.

Polysorbate 85

What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (6) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

You may also want to take a look at...

what‑it‑does solvent

Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more]

what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant
irritancy,com. 0, 0

A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more]

what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling
irritancy,com. 0, 2-3

A common multi-tasker fatty acid that works as an emollient, thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more]

what‑it‑does buffering

Lye - A solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amount to adjust the pH of the product. [more]

what‑it‑does antioxidant

A handy multifunctional ingredient that works as a preservative booster, as well as an antioxidant and soothingagent.

what‑it‑does emollient
irritancy,com. 0, 0
what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing | viscosity controlling
irritancy,com. 0, 1

A handy helper ingredient (a polymer, i.e. big molecule from repeated subunits) that is used to stabilize emulsions as well as to thicken up products. It can also stabilize foam in cleansing products. [more]

what‑it‑does viscosity controlling | perfuming
what‑it‑does soothing
irritancy,com. 0, 0

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.It's not only soothing but it' [more]

what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant
what‑it‑does emollient | solvent
irritancy,com. 0, 0-2

A clear, oily liquid that comes from refining crude oil. Even though it is a highly controversial ingredient, the scientific consensus is that it is a safe, non-irritating and effective emollient and moisturizer working mainly by occlusivity. [more]

what‑it‑does emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing

O’Keeffe’s Working Hands ingredients (Explained) (2025)
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