Petroleum Jelly: A No-No.

http://chinaadopttalk.com/2012/02/01/avoiding-toxins-petroleum-products-in-lotions-and-make-up/

I was researching healthy baby products when I came across non-petroleum jelly, so I looked up petroleum and found some interesting information.

Advice: Avoid vaseline, aquaphor, mineral oil or petroleum jelly.

Why? These are all biproducts of the processing of crude oil into gasoline, and there are different grades of each of these. Why would you put something strictly hydrophobic on your skin to moisturize it? If your skin is already wet then it’s going to push the surface water down deep into your skin, but that will leave the surface skin cells all dried out. If your skin is already dry it’s just going to keep any moisture from getting to it. Yes, it lubricates the outside of the skin cell, it makes the outside slippery, but what good is that doing, really?