You’ve probably noticed ads for cosmetics or grooming products that claim to be hypoallergenic, implying that they are safe for people with skin allergies. At one time or another, though, you’ve probably heard someone say ”I’m allergic to hypoallergenic products.” Perhaps that’s even true for you?

So what’s the story? The FDA told us that there is no official standard for hypoallergenic claims other than such a product must be less likely to cause adverse reactions than other similar products. For some manufacturers, that simply means omitting fragrance, the single biggest cause of cosmetics allergies.

Others go to great pains to find safe substitutes for as many of the other common allergenic chemicals as they can. The ingredients, then, will vary from one manufacturer to the next, so that one hypoallergenic mascara, for example, may cause no difficulty, while another is a problem.

Even the so called hypoallergenic products contain lists of ingredients that read like the index of a high school chemistry text – and any of them can start trouble for you. One of the leading brands of hypoallergenic cosmetics, for instance, contains parabens. So hypoallergenic obviously doesn’t imply a product is free of all possible troublemaker.

Since the cosmetics are less than pure, manufacturers marketing their products as hypoallergenic must also test them on people. One of the major distributors of such products told us that they test their products by repeatedly applying the product to the skin of 600 people, under the supervision of a dermatologist.

Only those products which produce no reaction within the test period are marketed as hypoallergenic. But as you can see, hypoallergenic is a relative term. What’s hypoallergenic for you may not be hypoallergenic for your friend. The best approach is to read labels carefully, follow directions for use, and conduct a patch test if you tend to react to cosmetics.