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

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. [more]

what‑it‑does	emollient | viscosity controlling | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing
irritancy, com.	1, 2

A super common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams. [more]

what‑it‑does

moisturizer/humectant

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

A mixture of 4 to 7 chain length cyclic silicones. It's a light, volatile ingredient that gives skin or hair a smooth feel and has emollient properties. [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

emollient

Shea butter that's considered to be a magic moisturizer and emollient. It is also soothing and rich in antioxidants. [more]

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. [more]

what‑it‑does

solvent

A type of glycol. Its main job is to be a solvent, but it has also very good antimicrobial properties and acts as a true preservative booster. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient | perfuming

A clear, slightly yellow, odorless oil  that's a very common, medium-spreading emollient. It makes the skin feel nice and smooth and works in a wide range of formulas.

what‑it‑does

emollient | solvent

A clear, colorless and odorless oily liquid that works as a fast-spreading emollient with a dry skin feel. 

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A soft, white powder that can be used as a talc replacement in body powders or in pressed powders. It also has some oil absorbing properties and gives increased cushion and richness to emulsion-type formulas.  

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. [more]

what‑it‑does

emollient

A white, solid, vegetable-derived fat (meaning it has the same triglyceride structure as oils but is solid at room temperature) that contains coconut-derived, C12-C18 chain length, saturated (no double bonds) fatty acids. It is odorless, has a neutral taste and it is pretty hard at room temperature. [more]

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.  [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

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 | 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

exfoliant | moisturizer/humectant | buffering

A superstar AHA that not only exfoliates skin but is also a very good moisturizer. In higher concentration (10% and up) it can even improve skin firmness, thickness, and wrinkles. [more]

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. [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

moisturizer/humectant

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

moisturizer/humectant | soothing

A type fo sugar, usually refined from cane or beet sugar. On the skin, it is water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated.

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

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

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

Algae extract that works both as a film-forming and moisturizing ingredient, as well as a gelling and thickening agent. [more]

what‑it‑does

surfactant/cleansing

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

preservative

Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more]

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 | surfactant/cleansing
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

viscosity controlling

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 | 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. [more]

what‑it‑does

preservative | perfuming | solvent | viscosity controlling

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It can be naturally found in fruits and teas but can also be made synthetically. No matter the origin, in small amounts (up to 1%) it’s a nice, gentle preservative. [more]

what‑it‑does

emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing

A common water-loving surfactant and emulsifier that helps to keep water and oil mixed nicely together.

what‑it‑does

soothing | moisturizer/humectant

Biosaccharide Gum-1 is a pretty interesting kind of sugar ingredient that is created from sorbitol via bacterial fermentation.  According to the manufacturer it’s a “S.M.A.R.T.” sugar: [more]

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

The most common type of feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason parabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient to make sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon.  Apart from the general controversy around parabens (we wrote about it more here), there is a 2006 in-vitro (made in the lab not on real people) research about methylparaben (MP) sho [more]