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

solvent

A clear, colorless liquid that works as a solvent and viscosity decreasing ingredient. It also has great skin-moisturizing abilities.  [more]

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

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

moisturizer/humectant

Three glycerin molecules attached together. It is also a humectant, moisturizer ingredient just like glycerin, but the larger molecular structure penetrates slower into the skin and gives milder, longer lasting moisture.

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

An important compound in our body that has a vital cell-signalling role. It is wound healing, anti-inflammatory and can help with barrier repair. [more]

what‑it‑does

soothing | moisturizer/humectant

A great skin soother and moisturizer, and it even shows promising anti-aging benefits. It‘s also shown to have wound healing properties and is a mild antioxidant. [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

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	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

moisturizer/humectant

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

what‑it‑does

soothing

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient | soothing | antioxidant

A copper-peptide complex that has unique wound healing and skin remodelling properties. It's also an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agent. [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

A four amino acid peptide that is claimed to mimic the youth hormone called thymopoietin. It works by compensating the loss of thymic factors that come with age and is thought to stimulate the skin immune defenses and to help the skin regenerate. 

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

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

colorant

The caramel in cosmetics is pretty much the same one that you know from the kitchen. It is derived by controlled heat treatment of food-grade carbohydrates (sugars) and works as a brown colorant.  [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant | viscosity controlling

Glyceryl acrylate/acrylic acid copolymer is the fancy word for a common polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits), namely polyacrylic acid (aka carbomer when it comes to cosmetics) with glycerin attached to it in some places. The main thing of this polymer is that it forms a hydrogel (trade named Lubrajel) that can sit on top of the skin and provide moisturizing, water-soluble [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

A 3 amino-acid peptide that works by inhibiting the production of progerin, a cell-aging accelerator protein.  The manufacturer claims that Trifluoroacetyl Tripeptide-2 can bring back cell activity to a 20-year-old young cell level and the ingredient can nicely increase skin elasticity, firmness and reduce skin-sagging. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

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

Boron Nitride is a graphite-like, crystalline material that has light-diffusing and texture improving properties. It is quite the multi-tasker as it can blur imperfections, add an exceptional creamy feel to products and act as a mattifying agent. In powder makeup products (think blushers, highlighters), it enhances the skin feel and improves the color pay-off. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

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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

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

Syn-Coll - An anti-aging tripeptide that's claimed to protect and boost collagen and improve skin texture. [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

A small, three amino acid synthetic tripeptide that is claimed to increase structural elements in the skin like hyaluronic acid and proteoglycans. Might be effective against skin sagging. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A kind of salt that's used as a thickener in cosmetic products.

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

solvent | moisturizer/humectant

A multi-functional, silky feeling helper ingredient that can do quite many things. It's used as an emulsion stabilizer, solvent, and a broad spectrum antimicrobial. [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient | moisturizer/humectant

Argireline - famous peptide that's often referred to as "Botox in a jar". In reality, it's nowhere near that powerful, but it can smooth wrinkles to some extent by preventing facial muscles from contracting. [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient

A three amino-acid, small peptide that belongs to the "botox in a jar" type of peptides. It can smooth wrinkles caused by facial movements, like laughter lines or crow’s feet. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin brightening

A skin brightening peptide that is claimed to fade pigmentation spots as well as brighten skin color in general. [more]

what‑it‑does

soothing

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

skin-identical ingredient | skin brightening

An amino sugar that helps the skin to stay hydrated, is also promising against wrinkles and can help to fade brown spots particularly when combined with niacinamide. [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

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 amino acid (the building blocks of skin proteins, like collagen) that hydrates the skin and might help wound healing and improve wrinkles. [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 (meaning that our body can produce it) that might be able to improve wrinkles combined with other amino acids, glycine and leucine. [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

A sugar beet derived amino acid derivative with nice skin protection and moisturization properties. Its special thing is being an osmolyte, a molecule that helps to control cell-water balance.  [more]

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

It's an important skin-identical ingredient and great natural moisturizer that helps the skin to hold onto water and stay nicely hydrated. [more]

what‑it‑does

buffering | moisturizer/humectant

The sodium salt of lactic acid. It's a great skin moisturizer and also used to regulate the pH value of the cosmetic formula. [more]

what‑it‑does

skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant

PCA stands for Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid and though it might not sound like it, it is a thing that can be found naturally in our skin. In fact, after amino acids, it is the second biggest NMF component of the skin with 12% being PCA of the NMF composition of normal skin.  So similar to other NMFs, it's a skin goodie that  [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	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 | perfuming
irritancy, com.	0, 3

The emollient plant oil coming from the soybean. It is rich in barrier repairing linoleic acid (48-59%) and is generally a good moisturizing oil. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | emulsifying

It's the chemically chopped up version of normal lecithin. Most often it's used to create liposomes and to coat and stabilize some other ingredient. 

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A kind of polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) that helps to create beautiful gel-like textures. It's also a texturizer and thickener for oil-in-water emulsions. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A helper ingredient that helps to thicken up formulas and form a nice gel texture. It leaves a rich, elegant feel with a velvety finish on the skin.

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

A biocompatible copolymer with a similar structure to cell membrane ingredient, phospholipid. It's a good skin moisturizer and can also help to reduce irritation. [more]

what‑it‑does

buffering

An AHA that comes from citrus fruits. It is usually used as a helper ingredient to adjust the pH of the formula. [more]

what‑it‑does

perfuming | solvent

A clear liquid with a camphor-like odor that is used as a solvent.  [more]

what‑it‑does

preservative

A not so strong preservative that doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. [more]

what‑it‑does

surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying | viscosity controlling