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.
Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate
Also-called: Octinoxate, Octyl Methoxycinnamate | What-it-does: sunscreen | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
A clear, oil-soluble, "cosmetically-elegant" liquid that is the most commonly usedchemical sunscreen. Itabsorbs UVB radiation (at wavelengths: 280-320 nm) with a peak protection at 310nm.
It only protects against UVB and notUVA rays (the 320-400 nm range) – soalways choose products that contain other sunscreens too. It isnot very stable either, when exposed to sunlight, it kind of breaks down andloses itseffectiveness(not instantly, but over time - it loses 10% of its SPF protection ability within 35 mins). To make it more stable it can be - and should be - combined withother sunscreen agents to give stable and broad-spectrum protection (the new generation sunscreen agent, Tinosorb S is a particularly good one for that).
Regarding safety, there are also someconcerns around Octinoxate. In vitro (made in the lab not on real people) and animal studies have shown that it may produce hormonal (estrogen-like) effects.Do not panic, the studies were not conducted under real life conditions on real human people, so it is probably over-cautious to avoidOctinoxate altogether. However, if you are pregnant or a small child(under 2 yrs. old), choose a physical (zinc oxide/titanium dioxide) or new-generation Tinosorb based sunscreen, just to be on the super-safe side. :)
Overall,Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate is an old-school chemical sunscreen agent. There are plenty of better options for sun protection today, but it is considered "safe as used" (and sunscreens are pretty well regulated)and it is available worldwide (can be used up to 10% inthe EU and up to 7.5% in the US).
Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane - goodie
Also-called: Avobenzone | What-it-does: sunscreen
The famous Avobenzone. It is a special snowflake as it isthe only globally available chemical sunscreen agent that provides proper UVA protection (in the US,new generation sunscreen agents are not approved because of impossible FDA regulations). It is the global gold standard of UVA protection and is the most used UVA sunscreen in the world.
It gives very good protection acrossthe whole UVA range (310-400 nmthat is both UVA1 and UVA2) with a peak protection at 360 nm. The problem with it, though, is that it isnot photostable and degrades in the sunlight.Wikipedia saysthat avobenzone loses 36% of its UV-absorptioncapacity after just one hour of sunlight (yep, this is one of the reasons why sunscreens have to be reapplied after a few hours).
The cosmetic's industry is trying to solve the problem by combining avobenzone with other UV filters that enhance its stability (like octocrylene,Tinosorb S or Ensulizole) or by encapsulating it and while both solutions help, neither is perfect. Interestingly, the combination of avobenzone with mineral sunscreens (that is titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) is not a good idea. In the US, it is flat out prohibited as avobenzone becomes unstable when combined with mineral sunscreens.
As for safety, avobenzone has a pretty good safety profile. It counts as non-irritating, and unlike some other chemical sunscreens, it shows no estrogenic effect. The maximum concentration of avobenzone permitted is 5% in the EU and 3% in the US.
Benzophenone-3 - icky
Also-called: Oxybenzone | What-it-does: sunscreen | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
A chemical sunscreen agent that absorbs UVB and short UVA rays (280-350nm) with its peak protection at 288 nm. Unlike many other chemical sunscreens, it ishighly stable but its UV absorbing abilities are weakso it alwayshas to be combined with other sunscreen agents for proper protection. More often than not, it's used as aphotostabilizer rather than a proper sunscreen agent as it can protect formulas nicely from UV damage.
Regarding safety, BP-3 is somewhatcontroversial. First, its molecules are small (228 Da) and very lipophilic (oil loving) and these properties result in very goodabsorption. The problem is that you want sunscreens on the top of your skin and not in your bloodstream, so for BP-3 this is a problem. In fact, it absorbs so well that 4 hours after application of a sunscreen product with BP-3,it can be detected in urine.
Another concern of BP-3 is that it shows some estrogenic activity, though it's probably not relevant when applied topically to the skin. Estrogenic activity was confirmed only in-vitro (in test tubes) and when taken orally by lab animals, and not when used topically as you would normally. In fact, a 2004 follow-up study to examine the estrogenic effect of sunscreens when used topically on the whole body found that "the endogenous levels of reproductive hormones were unaffected" (even though BP-3 could be detected both in plasma and urine, so its absorption is no doubt too good).
If that was not enough,Wikipedia claims that BP-3 is nowadays themost common allergen found in sunscreens, and the always-trustworthysmartskincarewrites that "[benzophenones] have been shown in some studies to promote thegeneration of potentially harmful free radicals".
On the up side, sunscreens are pretty wellregulated in several parts of the world, and BP-3 is considered "safe as used" and is an allowed sunscreen agent everywhere. It can be used in concentrations ofup to 10% in the EU and up to 6% in the US.
Overall, BP-3 is probably our least favorite sunscreen agent and we prefer sunscreens without it. However, if you find a formula that you love and contains BP-3, we do not think that you should throw it away. A sunscreen with BP-3 is definitely better than no sunscreen.
Phospholipids - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, emollient
A type of lipid that's the major (about 75%) component of all cell membranes. As for skincare, it works as an emollient and skin-identical ingredient.
It has a water-lovinghead with two water-hatingtails and this structure gives the molecule emulsifying properties. It is also often used to create liposomes, small spheres surrounded by phospholipid bi-layer designed to carry some active ingredient and helpits absorption.
1,3 Butylene glycol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, solvent | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1
Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product.
BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin.
It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone (at least not that we know about). BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive.
Isododecane
What-it-does: emollient, solvent
Aclear, colorless and odorless, highly volatile (meaning it does not absorb into the skin but evaporates from it) liquid that's used as an emollient. It gives a nicenon-oily light skin feeland it can improvethe slip of the formula without leaving a tacky residue behind.
It's also popular in make-up products as its volatility makes mascarasand foundations last longer. If that would not be enough, it's also an excellent solvent, and it's a regular not only on the ingredients lists of make-ups but also on makeup removers.
Glycerine - superstar
Also-called: Glycerol;Glycerin | 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 >>
Phenyl Trimethicone
What-it-does: emollient
A silicone fluid that gives anonoily, easy to spread emolliencyto the formulas. It is also used as a water repellent additive and to reduce the tackiness and stickiness of otheringredients. It also imparts gloss, softness and better manageability to hair.
Propanediol
Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant
Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often usedand often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved.
It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.
Glyceryl Citrate/Lactate/Linoleate/Oleate
What-it-does: emulsifying
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Titanium Dioxide - goodie
What-it-does: sunscreen, colorant
Titanium Dioxide is one of the two members of the elite sunscreen group called physical sunscreens (or inorganic sunscreens if you’re a science geek and want to be precise).
Traditionally, UV-filters are categorized as either chemical or physical. The big difference is supposed to be that chemical agents absorb UV-light while physical agents reflect it like a bunch of mini umbrellas on top of theskin. While this categorization is easy and logicalit turns out it's not true. A recent, 2016 study shows that inorganic sunscreens work mostly by absorption, just like chemical filters, and only a little bit by reflection (they do reflect the light in the visible spectrum, but mostly absorb in the UV spectrum).
Anyway, it doesn't matter if it reflects or absorbs, Titanium Dioxide is a pretty awesome sunscreen agent for two main reasons: it gives a nice broad spectrum coverage and it's highly stable. Its protection is very good between 290 - 350 nm (UVB and UVA II range), and less goodat 350-400 nm (UVA I) range. Regular sized Titanium Dioxide also has a great safetyprofile, it's non-irritating and is pretty much free from any health concerns (like estrogenic effect worries with some chemical filters).
The disadvantage of Titanium Dioxide is that it's not cosmetically elegant, meaning it's a white, "unspreadable" mess. Sunscreens containingTitanium Dioxideare often hard to spread on the skin and they leave a disturbing whitishtint. The cosmetic industry is, of course, really trying to solve this problemand the best solution so far is using nanoparticles. The itsy-bitsy Nano-sized particles improveboth spreadability and reduce the whitish tint a lot, but unfortunately, it also introduces new health concerns.
The main concernwith nanoparticles is that they are so tiny that they are absorbedinto the skin more than we want them (ideally sunscreen should remain on the surface of the skin). Once absorbed they might form unwanted complexes with proteins and they might promote the formation of evil free radicals. But do not panic, these are concerns under investigation. A 2009 review article about the safety of nanoparticles summarizes this, "to date, in-vivo and in-vitro studies have not demonstrated percutaneous penetration of nanosized particles in titanium dioxide and zinc oxide sunscreens". The English translation is, so far it looks like sunscreenswith nanoparticlesdo stay on the surface of the skin where they should be.
All in all,Titanium Dioxide is a famous sunscreen agent and for good reason, it gives broad spectrum UV protection (best at UVB and UVA II), it's highly stable, and it has a good safety profile. It's definitely one of the best UV-filter agents we have today, especially in the US where new-generation Tinosorb filters are not (yet) approved.
Triethoxycaprylylsilane
A clear, light yellow liquid that is used to coat pigments (such as inorganic sunscreen agents or colorants) in cosmetic products. The coating helps to stabilize pigments in the formulas and also helps them to spread easily and evenly on the skin.
Polyhydroxystearic Acid
What-it-does: emulsifying
A so-called dispersant or dispersing agent that's used in inorganic (titanium dioxide/zinc oxidebased) sunscreens or in make-up products to help to distribute the pigments nicely and evenly on the skin. It's also claimed to increase the UV absorption of the sunscreen formula as well as to reduce the annoying white cast left behind by inorganic sunscreens.
Cyclopentasiloxane
What-it-does: emollient, solvent
A super commonly used 5 unit long, cyclic structuredsilicone that is water-thin and does not stay on the skin but evaporates from it (called volatile silicone). Similar to other silicones, it gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.
It's often combined with the non-volatile (i.e. stays on the skin)dimethicone as the two together forma water-resistant, breathable protective barrier on the skin without a negative tacky feel.
Cyclopentasiloxane
What-it-does: emollient, solvent
A super commonly used 5 unit long, cyclic structuredsilicone that is water-thin and does not stay on the skin but evaporates from it (called volatile silicone). Similar to other silicones, it gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.
It's often combined with the non-volatile (i.e. stays on the skin)dimethicone as the two together forma water-resistant, breathable protective barrier on the skin without a negative tacky feel.
Dimethicone Crosspolymer
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising
A high-molecular-weightsilicone elastomer (rubber-likeelastic material) that is usually blended with a base silicone fluid (such as dimethicone or cyclopentasiloxane) to give the formula a silky smooth feel and to act as a thickening agent.
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
What-it-does: emollient
A super common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth. It comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy. It’s a nice ingredient that just feels good on the skin, is super well tolerated by every skin type andeasy to formulate with. No wonder it’s popular.
Dicaprylyl Carbonate
What-it-does: emollient
A clear, colorless, almost odorless oil that spreads nicely and easily and givesa velvet dry skin feel. It is good friends with sunscreen agents and helps to solubilize them. Also, it makes sunscreens feel lighter and spread easier.
Zea Mays (Corn) Starch
Also-called: Corn Starch | What-it-does: viscosity controlling, absorbent/mattifier, abrasive/scrub
A corn-derived, white to yellowish, floury powder that works as a handy helper ingredient to create nice feeling emulsions.
It gives a generally pleasant skin feel, has some mattifying effect (though rice starch is better at that), it reduces greasiness and tackiness and helps the formula to spread easily without whitening or shininess.
Fragaria Ananassa (Strawberry) Fruit Extract
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Sodium Hyaluronate - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF,hyaluronic acid(HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.
As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephenwrites on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".
In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checkedProspector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight).
What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate andcheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.
If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid(including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature).
Niacinamide - superstar
Also-called: vitamin B3, nicotinamide | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant
- A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
- Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
- Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
- Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
- Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis
Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >>
Panthenol - goodie
Also-called: Pro-Vitamin B5 | What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. As you might guess from the “pro” part, it’s a precursor to vitamin B5 (whose fancy name is pantothenic acid).
Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. There is also research showing that panthenol can help our skin to produce more lovely lipids that are important for a strong and healthy skin barrier.
Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. fragrance, preservatives or chemical sunscreens) in the product.
Research also shows that it might be useful for wound healing as it promotes fibroblast (nice type of cells in our skin that produce skin-firming collagen) proliferation.
If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. A study shows that a nail treatment liquide with 2% panthenol could effectively get into the nail and significantly increase the hydration of it.
As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there. Panthenol might make your hair softer, more elastic and helps to comb your hair more easily.
Tocopheryl Acetate
Also-called: Vitamin E Acetate | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here. This one is the so-called esterified version.
According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life, it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin and may not have the same awesome photoprotective effects as pure Vit E.
Polyglyceryl-3 Polyricinoleate
What-it-does: emulsifying, viscosity controlling
A plant based ingredient that helps water to mix with oil (aka W/O emulsifier).It's especially good for soft to low-viscosity water-in-oil emulsionswith non-greasy, pleasant skin feellike lip balms or thick body butters.
Xanthan Gum
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising
It's one of the most commonly used thickeners and emulsion stabilizers. If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like.Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-calledrheology modifiers (helper ingredients that adjust the flow and thus the feel of the formula). The typical use level of Xantha Gum is below 1%, it is usually in the 0.1-0.5% range.
Btw, Xanthan gum is all natural, a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide) produced from individual sugar molecules (glucose and sucrose) via fermentation. It’s approved by Ecocert and also used in the food industry(E415).
Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising
It's a helper ingredient that helps to thicken up formulas and form a nice gel texture. It leaves a rich, elegantfeel with a velvety finish on the skin and works over a wide pH range.
Polyacrylate-13
A helper ingredient that functions as a film-forming polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits).
It usually comesto the formula as part of athickener-emulsifier trio paired withPolyisobutene andPolysorbate 20. The three togeather have excellent thickening properties with remarkable emulsifying-stabilising abilities. They also have a nice silicone feel with glide-on spreading.
Polyisobutene
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
A polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) that's used as a gloss improver for lipsticks and lipglosses. Its stickiness also helps lip products to stay on longer.
Combined with polyacrylate-13 and polysorbate 20, it forms a very effective tickener-emulsifier trio.
Polysorbate 20
What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula.
Sodium Gluconate
What-it-does: chelating, moisturizer/humectant
The neutralized form of gluconic acid. It's a great ingredient to neutralize metal (especially iron and copper) ions in a cosmetic product. This helpsto prevent discoloration of the formula over time or rancidity of cosmetic oils. It can also be a pH regulator and a humectant (helps skin to cling onto water).
It's also used in oral care products where itreduces the bitterness of other ingredients. And it's natural, both Ecocert and Cosmos approved. (source: manufacturer info)
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Ethylhexylglycerin
What-it-does: preservative, deodorant
If you have spottedethylhexylglycerinon the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative,phenoxyethanol. They are good friends becauseethylhexylglycerincan boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.
Also,it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.
Disodium EDTA
What-it-does: chelating
Super common little helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.
Ci 77491
Also-called: Iron Oxide Red | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Red Iron Oxide is the super common pigment that gives the familiar, "rust" red color. It is also the one that gives the pink tones in your foundation. Chemically speaking, it is iron III oxide (Fe2O3).
Triethoxycaprylylsilane
A clear, light yellow liquid that is used to coat pigments (such as inorganic sunscreen agents or colorants) in cosmetic products. The coating helps to stabilize pigments in the formulas and also helps them to spread easily and evenly on the skin.
Polyhydroxystearic Acid
What-it-does: emulsifying
A so-called dispersant or dispersing agent that's used in inorganic (titanium dioxide/zinc oxidebased) sunscreens or in make-up products to help to distribute the pigments nicely and evenly on the skin. It's also claimed to increase the UV absorption of the sunscreen formula as well as to reduce the annoying white cast left behind by inorganic sunscreens.
Ci 77492
Also-called: Iron Oxide Yellow | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Yellow Iron Oxide is the super common inorganic (as in no carbon atom in the molecule) pigment that gives the yellow tones in your foundation. Blended with red and black iron oxides, it is essential in all "flesh-toned" makeup products.
Chemically speaking, it is hydrated iron III oxide and depending on the conditions of manufacture, it can range from a light lemon to an orange-yellow shade.
Triethoxycaprylylsilane
A clear, light yellow liquid that is used to coat pigments (such as inorganic sunscreen agents or colorants) in cosmetic products. The coating helps to stabilize pigments in the formulas and also helps them to spread easily and evenly on the skin.
Polyhydroxystearic Acid
What-it-does: emulsifying
A so-called dispersant or dispersing agent that's used in inorganic (titanium dioxide/zinc oxidebased) sunscreens or in make-up products to help to distribute the pigments nicely and evenly on the skin. It's also claimed to increase the UV absorption of the sunscreen formula as well as to reduce the annoying white cast left behind by inorganic sunscreens.
Ci 77499
Also-called: Iron Oxide Black | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Black Iron Oxide is thesuper common inorganic(as in no carbon atom in the molecule)pigmentthat controls the darkness of your foundation or gives the blackness to your mascara. Blended with red and black iron oxides, it is essential in all "flesh-toned" makeup products.
Chemically speaking, it is a mixture of iron II and iron III oxide. Btw, this guy, unlike the yellow and red pigments, is magnetic.
Triethoxycaprylylsilane
A clear, light yellow liquid that is used to coat pigments (such as inorganic sunscreen agents or colorants) in cosmetic products. The coating helps to stabilize pigments in the formulas and also helps them to spread easily and evenly on the skin.
Polyhydroxystearic Acid
What-it-does: emulsifying
A so-called dispersant or dispersing agent that's used in inorganic (titanium dioxide/zinc oxidebased) sunscreens or in make-up products to help to distribute the pigments nicely and evenly on the skin. It's also claimed to increase the UV absorption of the sunscreen formula as well as to reduce the annoying white cast left behind by inorganic sunscreens.
