Aqua/Water
Also-called: Aqua;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.
Isohexadecane
What-it-does: emollient, solvent
A light, velvety, unique skin feel liquid that is a good solvent and also makes the skin feel nice and smooth (aka emollient). It's often used in makeup products mixed with silicones to give shine and slip to the product. It's also great forcleansing dirt and oil from the skin as well as for taking off make-up.
Methyl Trimethicone
What-it-does: solvent
Methyl Trimethicone is a very light, volatile silicone (it evaporates from the skin rather than absorbs into it) that's similar to super commonly used Cyclopentasiloxane but it dries even faster when applied to the skin.
Triethylhexanoin
What-it-does: emollient, perfuming
Triethylhexanoin is a colorless to pale yellow liquid ester that makes the skin nice and smooth, aka emollient. It has a pleasant non-sticky, non-greasy feel to it, gives formulassmooth application properties and also helps moisture retention.
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.
Trimethylsiloxysilicate
What-it-does: emollient
A solid silicone resin that creates a permeable film over the skin. It makes makeup formulas more long-lastingand can enhance the water resistance of sunscreens. It leaves a non-tacky film when dried.
Silica
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, absorbent/mattifier
A white powdery thing that's the major component of glass and sand. In cosmetics, it’s often in products that are supposed to keep your skin matte as it has great oil-absorbing abilities. It’s also used as a helper ingredient to thicken up productsorsuspendinsoluble particles.
Isoamyl Laurate
What-it-does: emollient
A naturally derived (Ecocert approved) colorless to yellowish oily liquid that's touted as a natural silicone alternative. It's claimed to have great sensorial properties: light but caring, velvety, silky and non-sticky.
It's also great at dissolving UV-filters in sunscreens or dispersing pigments in makeup products. You can also bump intoIsoamyl Lauratein hair care products asa hair conditioner that makes combing easier without build up.
Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone
Also-called: Cetyl Dimethicone Copolyol | What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing
A silicone emulsifier that helps water and silicone oils to mix nicely together.
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.
PEG-10 Dimethicone
What-it-does: emulsifying
A silicone emulsifier that helps water and silicone oils to mix nicely together. It can also be used together with plant oil + silicone oil mixtures.
Nylon-12
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
Anodorless, slightly yellowish powder that's used as apolymer microsphere (a tiny little ball from repeated subunits). It gives products an elegant, silky texture and better slip. It can alsoscatter light to blurfine lineswhile letting enough light through so that the skin still looks natural.
Disteardimonium Hectorite
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
An organic derivative of hectorite clay, Disteardimonium Hectorite is used as a viscosity controller - it thickens up formulations to make them less runny.
It’s most popular use in cosmetics is in sunscreens, under the trademarked name Bentone 38 from Elementis. According to the manufacturer info, it is a real multi-tasker, including the ability to prevent pigments settling during storage, stabilizing a formula for longer,creating a light and smooth skin feel andenhancing the water-resistance of sunscreen formulas.
Sodium Chloride
Also-called: Salt | What-it-does: viscosity controlling
Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. Normal, everyday table salt.
If (similar to us) you are in the weird habit of reading the label on your shower gel while taking a shower, you might have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the ingredient list. The reason for this is that salt acts as a fantastic thickener in cleansing formulas created with ionic cleansing agents(aka surfactants) such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture.
If you are into chemistry (if not, we understand, just skip this paragraph), the reason is that electrolytes (you know, the Na+ and Cl- ions) screen the electrostatic repulsion between the head groups of ionic surfactants and thus support the formation of long shaped micelles (instead of spherical ones) that entangle like spaghetti, and viola, a gel is formed. However, too much of it causes the phenomenon called "salting out", and the surfactant solution goes runny again.
Other than that, salt also works as an emulsion stabilizer inwater-in-oil emulsions, that is when water droplets are dispersed in the outer oil (or silicone) phase. And last but not least, when salt is right at the first spot of the ingredient list (and is not dissolved), the product is usually a body scrub where salt is thephysical exfoliating agent.
Caprylyl Glycol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, emollient, deodorant
It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives, such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol.
The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product. It's a popular duo.
1,2- Hexanediol
What-it-does: solvent
A really multi-functional helper ingredient that can do several things in a skincare product: it can bring a soft and pleasant feel to the formula, it can act as a humectant and emollient, it can be a solvent for some other ingredients (for example it can help to stabilize perfumesin watery products) and it can also help to disperse pigments more evenly in makeup products. And that is still not all: it can also boost the antimicrobial activity of preservatives.
Sodium Dehydroacetate
Also-called: Geogard 111S | What-it-does: preservative
A helper ingredient that helps to makethe products stay nice longer, akapreservative. It works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria.
It is Ecocert and Cosmos approved, and is popular in natural products.
Aluminum Hydroxide
What-it-does: emollient, moisturizer/humectant, viscosity controlling
Officially, CosIng (the official EU ingredient database) lists Aluminum Hydroxide 's functions as opacifying(making the product white and non-transparent), as well as emollient and skin protectant.
However, with a little bit of digging, it turns out Aluminum Hyroxide often moonlights as a protective coating for UV filter superstar Titanium Dioxide. Specifically, it protects our skin from the harmful effects of nasty Reactive Oxygen Species (free radicals derived from oxygen such as Superoxide and Hydrogen Peroxide)generated when Titanium Dioxide is exposed to UV light. Btw, chlorine inswimming pool waterdepletes this protective coating, so one more reason to reapply your sunscreen after a dip in the pool on holiday.
Other than that,Aluminum Hydroxide also often shows up in composite pigment technologies where it is used the other way around (as the base material and not as the coating material) and helps to achieve higher color coverage with less pigment.
PPG-15 Stearyl Ether
What-it-does: emollient
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
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.
Propylene Carbonate
What-it-does: solvent, viscosity controlling
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing
A mild amino acid based surfactant with great foaming properties. Can be used also for sensitive or baby 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.
Sodium Phytate
What-it-does: chelating
It’s one of those little helper ingredients that makes sure the product stays the same over time. No color change or anything like that. 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.
Lysine
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Magnesium Chloride
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
A kind of salt that's used as a thickener in cosmeticproducts.
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).
Glyceryl Caprylate
What-it-does: preservative
A 100% plant derived, natural (Ecocert approved) multi-functional ingredient that has emollient and moisturizing properties, can work as a co-emulsifier (meaning that next to other emulsifiers it can help water and oil to mix) and even more importantly has a strong antimicrobial activity.
Thanks to this last thing, it allows a lower percentage of traditional preservative or it might even be able to completelyreplace them.
Bacillus Ferment
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate
Also-called: Tinogard TT | What-it-does: antioxidant, preservative
Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate is an antioxidant molecule used in small amounts (less than 0.8%) to help products stay nice longer. More specifically, it is great at preventing discoloration or other types of oxidative degradation. It is a trendy alternative to often bad-mouthed synthetic antioxidant and stabilizer,BHT.
Ci 77891/Titanium Dioxide
Also-called: Titanium Dioxide/Ci 77891;Ci 77891 | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Ci 77891 is the color code of titaniumdioxide.It's a white pigment with great color consistency and dispersibility.
Ci 77491/Iron Oxides
Also-called: Iron Oxide Red;Ci 77491 | 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).
Ci 77492/Iron Oxides
Also-called: Iron Oxide Yellow;Ci 77492 | 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.
Ci 77499/Iron Oxides
Also-called: Iron Oxide Black;Ci 77499 | 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.
