Ingredients

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	skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant
irritancy, com.	0, 0

A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more]

what‑it‑does	moisturizer/humectant | solvent
irritancy, com.	0, 1

An often used glycol that works as a solvent, humectant, penetration enhancer and also gives a good slip to the products. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient

what‑it‑does	emollient
irritancy, com.	0, 2

A liquid emollient that gives a rich, cushiony skin-feel and unusually high levels of gloss. Often used in lip balms. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | solvent

It's a super commonly used water-thin volatile silicone that gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.  [more]

what‑it‑does	skin-identical ingredient | emollient
irritancy, com.	0, 1

An emollient and natural moisturizer that can be found also in the sebum (oily stuff our skin produces). It leaves a nice non-greasy, non-heavy feeling on the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient

An odorless and colorless emollient ester that gives a velvety and silky feel to the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | viscosity controlling

A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and stabilize emulsions. [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

skin-identical ingredient | emollient

A bio-mimetic ceramide molecule that is claimed to be similarly effective as ceramide 3 at moisturizing the skin and helping the barrier function. We have more about ceramides here.  The advantages of Hydroxypropyl Bispalmitamide MEA are a lower melting point and hence easier formulation and better price point than real ceramides. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | solvent

A light-feeling, volatile silicone that gives skin a unique, silky and non-greasy feel. It has excellent spreading properties and leaves no oily residue or build-up. 

A 100% vegetable origin emulsifier that helps to create ultra-soft, light textures. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

A type of sugar molecule, that has water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated.  [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | viscosity controlling

A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type with a long oil loving chain of 20 carbon atoms) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and it also helps the oily and the watery parts to stay nicely mixed together (called emulsion stabilizing).  [more]

what‑it‑does	skin-identical ingredient | emollient
irritancy, com.	0, 0

It's one of the important lipids that can be found naturally in the outer layer of the skin. About 25% of the goopy stuff between our skin cells consists of cholesterol. [more]

A film forming polymer that usually comes to the formula as part of a thickener-emulsifier trio paired with Polyisobutene and Polysorbate 20. [more]

what‑it‑does	soothing
irritancy, com.	0, 0

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmetic products is produced synthetically. It's not only soothing but it' [more]

what‑it‑does

emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing

A 100% vegetable origin emulsifier that usually comes to the formula with its buddy called C14-22 Alcohols. The duo is called Montanov L and two together help to create ultra-soft light formulas.

what‑it‑does

emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing

An ingredient that is created from the attachment of the water-loving sugar molecule, glucose, and an oil-loving 20 carbon long fatty chain. This makes it a partly water- and partly oil-soluble material, meaning it functions as an emulsifier helping oil and water to mix.   Most often, it comes to the formula coupled with two fatty alcohol friends, Arachidyl and Behenyl alcohol, to make [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | moisturizer/humectant

A thick, high molecular weight silicone that is usually diluted in a lighter silicone fluid. The dimethiconol containing silicone blends leave a silky smooth, non-greasy film on the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) that's used as a gloss improver for lipsticks and lipglosses. Combined with polyacrylate-13 and polysorbate 20, it forms a very effective tickener-emulsifier trio. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient | cell-communicating ingredient | anti-acne | antimicrobial/antibacterial

A type of lipid that can be found naturally in the skin. Has antimicrobial and cell-communicating properties and is considered to be part of the skin's natural defence system. [more]

what‑it‑does

preservative

A natural multi-functional ingredient that has emollient and moisturizing properties, can work as a co-emulsifier and has a strong antimicrobial activity. [more]

what‑it‑does	viscosity controlling
irritancy, com.	0, 1

A handy white powder that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula. [more]

what‑it‑does

buffering

It's a little helper ingredient that helps to set the pH of the products to be right. It has an alkaline pH and can neutralize acidic ingredients.

what‑it‑does

preservative

It can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A white powdery thing that can mattify the skin and thicken up cosmetic products. [more]

what‑it‑does	emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing
irritancy, com.	0, 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. 

what‑it‑does	emulsifying
irritancy, com.	0, 1-2

A handy helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix nicely together. [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

Sugar - as a skincare ingredient it has water-binding properties, which means that it helps to keep your skin nice and hydrated.  [more]

what‑it‑does

surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying

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 | 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	antioxidant
irritancy, com.	0-3, 0-3

Pure Vitamin E. Great antioxidant that gives significant photoprotection against UVB rays. Works in synergy with Vitamin C. [more]

what‑it‑does	emollient
irritancy, com.	0, 3

what‑it‑does	emollient
irritancy, com.	0, 1

A very common silicone that gives both skin and hair a silky smooth feel. It also forms a protective barrier on the skin and fills in fine lines. Also used for scar treatment. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | emulsifying

what‑it‑does

solvent

A multi-functional helper ingredient that acts as a humectant and emollient. It's also a solvent and can boost the effectiveness of preservatives. [more]

what‑it‑does	antioxidant
irritancy, com.	0, 0

A form of vitamin E that works as an antioxidant. Compared to the pure form it's more stable, has longer shelf life, but it's also more poorly absorbed by the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | emulsifying | perfuming

The attachment of glycerin and oleic acid that works mainly as a co-emulsifier and stabilizer to create stable water-oil mixes, aka emulsions. It is also popular in cleansing products as it helps to thicken them up and has some refatting and skin-smoothing effect.  [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient

what‑it‑does

emollient | emulsifying

what‑it‑does

emulsifying

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient | skin brightening | anti-acne | moisturizer/humectant

A multi-functional skincare superstar that has clinically proven anti-aging, skin lightening, anti-inflammatory and barrier repair properties. [more]

what‑it‑does

buffering

It's a very alkaline stuff that helps to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to be just right. [more]

what‑it‑does

soothing | emollient

The richest known plant source of super important essential fatty acid, gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). GLA is soothing and nourishing, and can repair even severely dry and irritated skin. [more]

what‑it‑does	skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant
irritancy, com.	0, 0

It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer. [more]

what‑it‑does	antioxidant
irritancy, com.	0, 2

An oil soluble vitamin C derivative that has mixed data about its effectiveness. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | emulsifying

It's quite the multi-tasker: an emollient and water-binding ingredient but also an emulsifier and can be used for stabilization purposes. It's also often used to create liposomes.  [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient