Hourglass
Ambient Lighting Palette
Uploaded on 10/24/2020
Each of these high-tech, soft-focus finishing powders recreate an exquisitely flattering light source.
Tarte Cosmetics
Shape Tape Glow Bar
Uploaded on 08/20/2023
Highlighter glow palette - glow powder formula (AKA the powder of youth) in 1 palette.
Ingredients
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
A mineral powder used to improve skin feel, increase product slip, give the product some light-reflecting properties, enhance skin adhesion or serve as an anti-caking agent. A real multi-tasker.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is the synthetic version of the super commonly used mineral, Mica. The advantage of being synthetic is that it has a more consistent quality, fewer impurities and an even lower heavy metal content than Mica (not that Mica's heavy metal content is high).
[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 | 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 | viscosity controlling |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A type of clay mineral that works as a nice helper ingredient to thicken and stabilize formulas. As a clay, it consists of platelets that have a negative charge on the surface (face) and a positive on the edge.
[more]
A handy spherical powder that gives excellent slip, fluidity and overall skin feel to the formula (often combined with Polymethylsilsesquioxane).
[more]
A microsphere powder that can scatter the light to give products a soft focus effect. It also works as a texture enhancer giving formulas an exceptional smoothness and a velvet touch.
[more]
| 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 | 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 | colorant | abrasive/scrub |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A type of clay that's a fine, white powder and is used for its oil-absorbing and opacifying properties. It's less absorbent and less drying than bentonite clay.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | abrasive/scrub |
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling | abrasive/scrub |
A multi-functional helper ingredient that's used mainly as a pigment carrier helping pigments in mineral sunscreens and color cosmetics to flow freely and evenly and not to clump.
[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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | emollient |
A solid silicone resin that creates a permeable film over the skin. It makes makeup formulas more long-lasting and can enhance the water resistance of sunscreens. It leaves a non-tacky film when dried.
| what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0-1 |
A mainly oil loving molecule that helps water and oil to mix nicely, aka emulsifier. In itself, it can create water-in-oil emulsions (when water droplets are dispersed in oil), but it is used mostly next to water-loving emulsifiers to create nice and smooth oil-in-water creams. It can also function as a wetting and dispersing agent helping insoluble particles such as color pigments
[more]
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A white powdery thing that can mattify the skin and thicken up cosmetic products.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | colorant | abrasive/scrub | viscosity controlling |
Far from the tin cans you find in the supermarket, Tin Oxide is mostly used when dealing with so-called effect pigments, tricky composite pigments that can do color travel (change color depending on the viewing angle) or give multiple color effect.
It's often found alongside Mica (as a base material) and Titanium Dioxide (as a coating) to give a glossy, pearlescent effect.
[more]
A spherical texturizing powder that's used as a texture enhancer and soft focus agent.
[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 | colorant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
Titanium dioxide as a colorant. It's a white pigment with great color consistency and dispersibility.
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A mix of red, yellow and black iron oxide.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
| 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]
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
A mild, natural preservative that usually comes to the formula together with its other mild preservative friends, such as Benzoic Acid and/or Dehydroacetic Acid.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A film-forming and thickening polymer (a large molecule composed of many repeated subunits) that comes to the formula usually as part of an emulsifier, thickener trio.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
An Ecocert-approved, natural preservative that counts as gentle and non-irritating to the skin. Usually, it comes to the formula as part of a preservative blend as it's not enough on its own.
| what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling | solvent |
A petroleum-derived emollient and thickener. It often comes to the formula as part of an emulsifier, thickener trio.
[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 | preservative |
A preservative that works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria. Popular in natural products.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
A not-very-interesting helper ingredient that is used as an emulsifier and/or surfactant. Comes from a coconut oil derived fatty alcohol, lauryl alcohol.
[more]
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
Bismuth Oxychloride has been around since the 1950s and it was one of the first synthetic materials to give a pearl-like effect in cosmetic products. It is a white powder with a fabulous sheen and a nice skin feel and it is still very popular in decorative cosmetics.
It has one major drawback:
[more]
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
Iron Oxide - a super common colorant with the color red.
[more]