If you work out at Equinox, there’s a good chance you also shower there. After all, the locker room famously feels more like a spa, and everything you need to lather, lotion, and leave feeling fresh is included in your around $300 membership fee , whether or not you take advantage of it. Ever since the gym switched from Kiehl’s bath and body care products to Grown Alchemist ones in May, plenty of members have made it clear how pissed they are to be paying for what they deem to be lower-quality products.Personal preferences aside, the change is actually a big deal for people with nut allergies, since a few of the Grown Alchemist items contain nut oils. A range of the brand’s products are now stocked in the Equinox locker rooms, but the concerns about allergy risk are specifically swirling around the body cleanser, which contains macadamia oil, and the conditioner and body cream, both of which have sweet almond oil (the same emollient, it’s worth noting, that was included in the Kiehl’s lotion previously offered in the gyms).The problem, according to people like content creator Blake Rayfield (who’s since canceled her Equinox membership in response to the product switch), is that body cleanser and conditioner are arguably necessary for thoroughly showering post-workout, whereas lotion can be more easily skipped. Plus, the body cleanser and conditioner are stocked in all the communal showers, meaning it’s a lot easier to make contact with the residue of those products via, say, the walls or floor, versus a cream that’s more contained, Rayfield tells SELF.TikTok contentThis content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.Rayfield isn’t the only one worried; in the comments of her TikTok video people with nut allergies have called the product switch “extremely unfair” and suggested that the brand needs to designate certain showers or even bathrooms as “nut-free.” SELF reached out to Equinox for comment on the potential issue, but they declined. So we turned to allergists and dermatologists for their thoughts: Should you reconsider a trip to the Equinox showers if you have a nut allergy—or will most people be A-okay? Here’s what you should keep in mind before you lather up.A nut oil doesn’t pose as big of a threat to a person with an allergy as a whole nut.Both almonds and macadamia nuts are tree nuts, one of the most common food allergens and among the most likely to trigger anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction that can start with itchiness and progress to wheezing and fainting. But that’s more likely to happen when someone with a nut allergy eats one of these nuts, not when they apply a topical product created with them.That’s because nut oils used in skin care are typically extracted via a process involving chemicals or high heat, which strips them of most of the nut proteins that lead to allergic reactions, Joshua Zeichner, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and the director of Cosmetic & Clinical Research in Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, tells SELF. In a statement provided to SELF, a Grown Alchemist spokesperson confirmed that in the formation of their products, “nut allergen proteins are often removed to the point of nonexistence.” (For some context, the purpose of these oils in skin care is the fat content, which softens rough areas and “forms a protective seal over the skin,” Dr. Zeichner says.)
People With Nut Allergies Just Added Another Layer to the Equinox Shower Product Drama
