

Dermalogica
Super Rich Repair Moisturizer
Uploaded on 09/10/2023
Deeply nourishing treatment that delivers immediate benefits to chronically dry, dehydrated, and inflamed skin.
Paula's Choice
Clinical Ultra-Rich Moisturiser
Uploaded on 11/09/2020
This luxuriously rich cream moisturiser provides immediate relief for uncomfortably
dry skin. The velvet texture is packed with emollients, skin-soothing plant extracts and replenishing plant oils to thoroughly hydrate the driest of skins. It quickly replenishes the skin’s surface, smoothing dryness and the appearance of wrinkles for skin that feels and looks soothed, hydrated and radiant.
Ingredients
what‑it‑does | solvent |
Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
Shea butter that's considered to be a magic moisturizer and emollient. It is also soothing and rich in antioxidants.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
A very common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth. Comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
irritancy, com. | 2, 3 |
An oily ingredient that can magically blend with water all by itself (called Self Emulsifying). Other than that it’s a nice emollient that gives a smooth and soft appearance to the skin.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0-2 |
Olive oil - an oleic acid-rich (55-83%) emollient plant oil that can moisturize dry skin. Also, it contains antioxidant polyphenols and vitamin E.
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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.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
Waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
The oil or butter coming from the kernel of the Mango. It's a great moisturizing and nourishing emollient oil that's loaded with skin goodies like essential amino acids, antioxidant phenolic compounds, and fatty acids.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling |
irritancy, com. | 2, 2 |
A fatty (the good, non-drying kind of) alcohol that makes your skin feel smooth and nice (emollient), helps to thicken up products and also helps water and oil to blend (emulsifier).
what‑it‑does | emollient | perfuming |
irritancy, com. | 0, 4 |
There is definitely some craze going on for coconut oil both in the healthy eating space (often claimed to be the healthiest oil to cook with but this is a topic for another site) and in the skin and hair care space. We will talk here about the latter two and see why we might want to smear it all over ourselves.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
Ceramides make up 50% of the goopy stuff that's between our skin cells and play a super important role in having a healthy skin barrier and keeping the skin hydrated.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
A type of ceramide that can be found naturally in the upper layer of the skin. Ceramides make up 50% of the goopy stuff that's between our skin cells and play a super important role in having a healthy skin barrier and keeping the skin hydrated.
We have written way more about ceramides at ceramide 1, so click here to know more.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
Ceramides get quite a lot of hype recently and good news: there is a reason for that. But before we go into the details, let's just quickly define what the heck ceramides are:
They are waxy lipids that can be found naturally in the outer layer of the skin (called stratum corneum - SC).
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | emollient |
A type of lipid that's the major component of all cell membranes. As for skincare, it works as an emollient and skin-identical ingredient. It's also often used to create liposomes.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0-3 |
Avocado oil - a highly moisturizing, rich emollient oil that is loaded with fatty acids (oleic - 70%) and vitamin A, E and D.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient |
Rice Bran Oil - emollient plant oil with nourishing and moisturizing fatty acids (oleic acid: 40%, linoleic acid: 30%, linolenic acid:1-2%), antioxidant vitamin E, emollient sterols and potent antioxidant gamma-oryzanol.
what‑it‑does | antioxidant | soothing | emollient | abrasive/scrub |
When you hear oatmeal, you probably think of breakfast, but the finely ground version of whole oat kernels, aka colloidal oatmeal, can do good things for your skin, especially if it's dry, itchy or prone to skin-rashes or eczema.Oat is loaded with compounds good for the body, inside or outside, such as soothing agent beta-glucan
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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.
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what‑it‑does | soothing | moisturizer/humectant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
Pro-Vitamin B5 is a goodie that moisturises the skin, has anti-inflammatory, skin protecting and wound healing properties.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 2 |
An oil soluble vitamin C derivative that has mixed data about its effectiveness.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying |
what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A common glycol that improves the freeze-thaw stability of products. It's also a solvent, humectant and to some extent a penetration enhancer.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
A helper ingredient that's used as a co-emulsifier and as a stabilization agent for foams.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A super commonly used thickener and emulsion stabilizer.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
A handy white powder that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula.
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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.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | preservative |
Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | solvent |
A clear, colorless liquid that works as a solvent and viscosity decreasing ingredient. It also has great skin-moisturizing abilities.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
A vegetable origin emollient that has a similar consistency to lard (solid at room temperature) but melts rapidly upon contact with the skin. Makes the skin nice and smooth, and not shiny or heavy.
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
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0-2 |
Jojoba oil - a wax ester (chemically not a real oil), that's very similar to human sebum. It's uniquely excellent at helping the skin with its protective barrier and helping it to stay moisturized.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
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.
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what‑it‑does | surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying |
A liquid fatty acid with great odour, thermal and oxidation stability. It's great for the stabilization of pigments and mineral particles in oils and solvents.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Syn-Coll - An anti-aging tripeptide that's claimed to protect and boost collagen and improve skin texture.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | soothing | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 2, 3 |
An emollient plant oil loaded with nourishing and moisturizing fatty acids. It's a very rich source of linoleic acid (66-76%), and also contains the soothing and healing superstar fatty acid, gamma-linoleic acid.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
what‑it‑does | emollient | moisturizer/humectant |
An extract that comes from one or more of the 20 000 kinds of algae out there. In general algae extracts serve as moisturizing, emollient and thickening agents, and many of them also have additional anti-aging properties.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
A silky clear liquid that has great moisturizing, skin protecting and film-forming properties on the skin.
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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.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | soothing | antioxidant | emollient | abrasive/scrub |
The finely ground version of whole oat kernels that has well-established skin soothing, skin-protecting and antioxidant abilities. We have a shiny description of oat extract in skincare here. It is a real goodie ingredient for dry, irritated, inflamed or eczema-prone skin.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant | soothing |
One of the main biologically active components of the famous medicinal plant, Centella Asiatica, aka Gotu Kola. It has well established wound healing, skin-soothing and antioxidant activities.
There is also a study by La Roche Posay (belongs to L'Oreal) that examined the anti-aging effects of 5% Vitamin C combined with 0.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
The thing in the pee that is also a natural moisturizing factor (NMF) with mild keratolytic and strong skin moisturizing superpowers.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
A yellowish oily liquid that works as a medium spreading emollient and is suitable for a wide pH range.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
what‑it‑does | emollient |
A helpful emollient ingredient that gives products a light, smooth-skin feeling. You’ll find it mostly in products containing SPF, as, according to several manufacturers, it can increase the water resistance and spreadability of UV filters.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
A chemically modified version of castor oil that results in a solid, waxy material that serves as an emollient and consistency building material.
It also has some unique moisturizing properties as it is both occlusive and humectant. The former one is common for oils and waxes and it means that it sits on top of the skin hindering water to evaporate out of the top layers.
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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.
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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®
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
A super common fragrance ingredient that can be found among others in lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot or jasmine. The downside of it is that it oxidises on air exposure and might become allergenic.
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
A common fragrance ingredient with a nice rose-like smell.
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
A common fragrance ingredient that smells like rose and can be found in rose oil.
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | perfuming | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
The essential oil created by steam distilling the leaves of the Eucalyptus tree. It's a colorless, pale yellow oil with a camphoraceous aroma used traditionally in vapor rubs to treat coughs.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
Sunflower Oil - it's a great emollient that protects & enhances the skin barrier.
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
The essential oil coming from the flowers of Rose Geranium. Like most essential oils, it contains antioxidant and antimicrobial components, but the main ones are fragrant constituents.
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | perfuming |