Follow us on our new Insta page »
Florence by Mills Built To Lash Lengthening Mascara

Built To Lash Lengthening Mascara

A lengthening mascara for lashes. It’s made with plant-based ingredients like bayberry and rose wax, plus an all-in-one brush for buildable volume that lifts and lengthens. Super-black mineral pigments make the most of every little lash. No flakes. No smudges.
Uploaded by: microcheck on

Florence by Mills Built To Lash Lengthening Mascara
Ingredients explained

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. 

Also-called: Carnauba Wax;Copernicia Cerifera Wax | What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

A vegetable wax coming from the leaves of the Brazilian tropical palm tree, Copernicia cerifera. Similar to other waxes, it is used to stabilize and give body to products, or to keep stick type formulas solid. It is the hardest natural wax with a high melting point (around 85C) and high gloss making it a great wax choice for lip products.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: emulsion stabilising

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Sunflower Wax | What-it-does: emollient

A hard wax coming from sunflower that has a high melting point and gives excellent thermal stability to the formulas. Similar to other waxes, it is used to stabilize products and give body to them, or to keep stick type formulas, such as lip balms, solid. 

Also-called: Gum Arabic

A natural polymer (big molecules from repeated subunits) that is harvested from the Acacia tree in the sub-Saharan region in Africa. It's a great thickening and binding agent. Often coupled with xanthan gum, as it helps to reduce its unpleasant stickiness.

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2-3

A common multi-tasker fatty acid. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), gives body to cream type products and helps to stabilize water and oil mixes (aka emulsions).

Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant

Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often used and 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 efficacy or to influence the sensory properties of the end formula. 

What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, emollient, emulsifying | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2

A fatty acid that can be found naturally in the skin. In fact, it's the most common saturated fatty acid found in animals and plants.

As for skincare, it can make the skin feel nice and smooth in moisturizers (emollient) or it can act as a foam building cleansing agent in cleansers. It's also a very popular ingredient in shaving foams. 

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

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.

Also-called: Rose Wax;Rosa Damascena Flower Cera | What-it-does: emollient

It's a waxy, solid material coming from Rose. In general, floral waxes are created in the same process as floral absolutes. An absolute is a super concentrated version of an essential oil. Instead of distillation, a solvent extraction method is used: First, an organic solvent is added to the plant material. Second, this solution is filtered and concentrated and a waxy mass, called concrete is produced. Third, the concrete is treated in alcohol and the soluble fraction becomes the absolute while the insoluble parts give the floral wax.

So the Rose Wax is a solid emollient with some protecting and softening power. It does not contain too much of the fragrant compounds (read more at the essential oil) as most of them are in the absolute, but if your skin is very sensitive it still might be better to avoid it. 

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: emollient

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 3

A 14 carbon length fatty acid that can be naturally found in nutmeg, palm kernel oil, coconut oil and butter fat. It's used as a foam building cleansing agent. Paula Begoun writes that it can be a bit drying to the skin. 

Also-called: Omega-9 fatty acid | What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying

A common fatty acid that can be found in lots of plant oils. Its name, "oleic", means derived from olive oil, a plant oil rich in oleic acid, but avocado, macadamia and marula oils, just to name a few, are also oleic rich.

Its chemical structure is monounsaturated, meaning it has one double bond (cis-9) that makes it less kinky than polyunsaturated fatty acids with multiple double bonds. Less kinkiness means that oleic acid and OA-rich oils are a bit thicker and heavier than their LA-rich siblings.

Lauric Acid - goodie
What-it-does: anti-acne, surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying | Irritancy: 1 | Comedogenicity: 4

A 12 carbon length fatty acid that can be found naturally in coconut milk, coconut oil, laurel oil, and palm kernel oil. It's also in breast milk. As a skincare ingredient, it can be used as an emulsifier or as a cleansing agent.

What's more, there is emerging research about lauric acid being a good anti-acne ingredient.  A 2009 study found that the lowest concentration to prevent evil acne-causing P. acnes growth of lauric acid is over 15 times lower than that of gold standard anti-acne ingredient benzoyl peroxide.

What-it-does: antioxidant

Galactoarabinan is a natural polysaccharide (a big carbohydrate molecule) that comes from the Larch trees.

According to the manufacturer it can do all kinds of good in a formula: it can reduce trans-epidermal-water-loss (a fancy way of saying that it's moisturizing), improve the appearance of skin’s superficial fine lines, improve the uniformity and spreadability of a formulation and provides SPF enhancement. What's more it can also help to boost the efficacy of AHA exfoliants (while not boosting the irritation side effect). 

Also-called: HEC | What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising

A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautiful gel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component of the cell wall of green plants. It is compatible with most co-ingredients and gives a very good slip to the formulas. 

What-it-does: solvent, emulsifying, perfuming, surfactant/cleansing | Irritancy: 0-1 | Comedogenicity: 0-2

Similar to other glycols, it's a helper ingredient used as a solvent, or to thin out thick formulas and make them more nicely spreadable. 

Hexylene Glycol is also part a preservative blend named Lexgard® HPO, where it helps the effectiveness of current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol

A common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier.

What-it-does: buffering

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: buffering

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: buffering

An alkaline (high pH, aka basic) material that is used to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to the right value

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. 

What-it-does: soothing

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Iron Oxide Black | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Black Iron Oxide is the super common inorganic (as in no carbon atom in the molecule) pigment that 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. 

You may also want to take a look at...

what‑it‑does solvent
Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient
irritancy, com. 0, 1
A vegetable wax coming from the leaves of the Brazilian tropical palm tree, Copernicia cerifera. Similar to other waxes, it is used to stabilize and give body to products. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient
A hard wax coming from sunflower that has a high melting point and gives excellent thermal stability to the formulas. Similar to other waxes, it is used to stabilize products and give body to them, or to keep stick type formulas, such as lip balms, solid.  [more]
A natural polymer (big molecules from repeated subunits) that is harvested from the Acacia tree in the sub-Saharan region in Africa. It's a great thickening and binding agent. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling
irritancy, com. 0, 2-3
A common multi-tasker fatty acid that works as an emollient, thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more]
what‑it‑does solvent | moisturizer/humectant
A natural corn sugar derived glycol. It can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacy or to influence the sensory properties of the end formula. [more]
what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | emollient | emulsifying
irritancy, com. 0, 2
A fatty acid that can be found naturally in the skin. It can make the skin feel nice and smooth in moisturizers (emollient) or it can act as a foam building cleansing agent in cleansers. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling
what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant | emollient
A handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel and also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient
A waxy, solid material coming from Rose. It's an emollient with some protecting and softening power. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient
what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying | perfuming
irritancy, com. 0, 3
A 14 carbon length fatty acid that can be naturally found in nutmeg, palm kernel oil, coconut oil and butter fat. It's used as a foam building cleansing agent. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient | emulsifying
A common fatty acid that can be found in lots of plant oils. Its name, "oleic", means derived from olive oil, a plant oil rich in oleic acid, but avocado, macadamia and marula oils, just to name a few, are also oleic rich. Its chemical structure is monounsaturated, meaning it has one double bond (cis-9) that makes it less kinky than polyunsaturated fatty acids with multi [more]
what‑it‑does anti-acne | surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying
irritancy, com. 1, 4
A fatty acid that can be found in coconut milk and human breast milk. It can be used as an emulsifier or as a cleansing agent. There are also promising studies about lauric acid being an effective anti-acne ingredient. [more]
what‑it‑does antioxidant
Galactoarabinan is a natural polysaccharide (a big carbohydrate molecule) that comes from the Larch trees.According to the manufacturer it can do all kinds of good in a formula: [more]
what‑it‑does viscosity controlling
A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautiful gel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component of the cell wall of green plants. [more]
what‑it‑does solvent | emulsifying | perfuming | surfactant/cleansing
irritancy, com. 0-1, 0-2
Similar to other glycols, it's a helper ingredient used as a solvent, or to thin out thick formulas and make them more nicely spreadable.  Hexylene Glycol is also part a preservative blend named Lexgard® [more]
what‑it‑does emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing
A common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier.
what‑it‑does buffering
what‑it‑does buffering
what‑it‑does buffering
An alkaline (high pH, aka basic) material that is used to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to the right value.  [more]
what‑it‑does preservative
Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more]
what‑it‑does soothing
what‑it‑does antimicrobial/antibacterial | perfuming
what‑it‑does colorant
irritancy, com. 0, 0
CI 77499 or Iron Oxide is a super common colorant with the color black.  [more]