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

A non-essential amino acid (a building block of skin proteins like collagen or elastin) that hydrates the skin.

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient

An essential amino acid that hydrates the skin and might be also a barrier repair ingredient. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient

An amino acid that is one of the primary building blocks of hair keratin and skin collagen. It's a natural moisturizing factor and might also help to speed up wound healing.  [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

Glutamic acid is a little molecule and non-essential (our body can synthesize it) amino acid with the important job of being a neurotransmitter in the human body meaning that it helps your nervous system work correctly.  As for what it's doing in cosmetics, Glutamic acids' main thing (similar to other amino acids) is being a humectant moisturizer and skin-conditioning [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient

Serine is an amino acid that most often comes to the formula as part of a moisturizing complex. It's a non-essential amino acid (meaning that our body can synthesize it) and serves as a water-binding ingredient.In general, amino acids are great skincare ingredients that play an important role in proper skin hydration but there is not much info out there about what specifically serine can d [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient

An essential amino acid (a building block of skin proteins like collagen) that is a skin hydrator. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient

An essential amino acid (important building block of collagen and elastin) that hydrates the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient

A non-essential amino acid  (important building block of collagen and elastin) that hydrates the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant

An amino acid that is important in regulating the immune defense and inflammatory processes in the body. It's a skin moisturizer that might protect from skin infections. [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

antioxidant | emollient

Ginseng - A traditional Korean medicine that has antioxidant properties, and is known to improve blood circulation. [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

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

solvent

A light, volatile silicone that's similar to commonly used Cyclopentasiloxane but it dries even faster when applied to the skin.  [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

This bamboozling INCI name is given to a spherical silicone powder that has an elastic silicone rubber inner part and a harder silicone resin outer part.It gives formulas a uniquely soft, silky feeling, and has a mattifying and soft focus effect. [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	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

emollient | moisturizer/humectant | surfactant/cleansing

A type of silicone that makes the skin smooth and nice (emollient), moisturizes and helps to reduce the tackiness of the products. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

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

A spherical texturizing powder that's used as a texture enhancer and soft focus agent. [more]

what‑it‑does

emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing

The snappily named Lauryl Peg-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone is a silicone emulsifier fluid whose main thing is being a good dispersant for powders such as mineral UV filters or color pigments. According to the manufacturer Kobo, this partly water- and partly oily soluble form of dimethicone helps filters like Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide disperse more evenly and thus provi [more]

what‑it‑does

emulsifying

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

A corn sugar-derived, water-soluble, pale yellow syrup, that nicely moisturizes the skin. It has a light and smooth skin feel. [more]

A type of silicone elastomer (rubber-like material with both viscosity and elasticity) whose major function is forming a nice film on the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

antioxidant | soothing | skin brightening | perfuming

Turmeric Root Extract that has nice anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and skin-brightening properties. [more]

what‑it‑does

antioxidant

what‑it‑does

antioxidant | soothing

Green Tea - one of the most researched natural ingredients that contains the superstar actives called catechins. It has proven antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anticarcinogenic properties. [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

moisturizer/humectant

what‑it‑does

antioxidant | perfuming

The well-known stimulant from coffee. It has nice antioxidant properties and can improve the microcirculation. Might be helpful for dark circles, puffy eyes, as well as cellulite and hair loss. [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]

what‑it‑does

antioxidant | skin brightening | soothing | emollient

When you hear the word Soy, you probably associate it with soy sauce or tofu, not skincare. But as it turns out, the soybean has a bunch of useful active components and soybean extract is an interesting cosmetic ingredient with a wide range of possible effects. Its main active components are antioxidant phenolic acids and flavonoids  [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

A silky clear liquid that has great moisturizing, skin protecting and film-forming properties on the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient

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

cell-communicating ingredient

A three amino acid peptide that is part of famous peptide duo, Matrixyl 3000. It's a type I collagen fragment that might be able to trick the skin to think that collagen broke down and it's time to create some new one. [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

The pal of Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 in Matrixyl 3000. A four amino acid peptide that works by reducing the production of the signal molecule, inteleukin-6 (IL-6) that promotes inflammation in the skin. [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

A relatively new, four amino acid peptide that promises to help combat hair loss alongside red clover extract as part of the trademarked technology Capixyl. The main thing of  [more]

what‑it‑does

soothing | moisturizer/humectant

The salt form of one of the main anti-inflammatory ingredients in the licorice plant, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate. It’s a yellowish powder with a nice sweet smell.  It’s used mainly for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, but according to manufacturer info, it’s also sebum regulating so it' [more]

what‑it‑does

buffering

Lye - A solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amount to adjust the pH of the product.  [more]

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

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	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

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	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	viscosity controlling
irritancy, com.	0, 1

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

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A super commonly used thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more]

what‑it‑does

chelating

Super common little helper ingredient that helps 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. [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

antioxidant | preservative

It's the acronym for Butylated Hydroxy Toluene. It's a common synthetic antioxidant that's used as a preservative.There is some controversy around BHT. [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

preservative

A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria.  It is Ecocert and Cosmos approved, and is popular in natural products.  [more]