

MAC
Prep + Prime Highlighter
Uploaded on 11/28/2020
A pen-style highlighter that efficiently brings a soft, sheer wash
of colour to the skin. With its precision application, it adds radiance just where you want it.
Maybelline
Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer
Uploaded on 06/18/2018
This super-concentrated treatment concealer features a micro-corrector applicator to help
instantly erase dark circles and fine lines.
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 | solvent |
It's a super commonly used water-thin volatile silicone that gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.
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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 | solvent |
A clear, colorless and odorless, highly volatile (meaning it does not absorb into the skin but evaporates from it) liquid that's used as an emollient and gives a nice, non-oily light skin-feel.
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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 | emulsifying |
A silicone emulsifier that helps water to mix nicely with silicone oils.
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 high-molecular-weight silicone elastomer (rubber-like elastic material) that is usually blended with a base silicone fluid (such as dimethicone or cyclopentasiloxane) to give the formula a silky smooth feel and to act as a thickening agent.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A polymer microsphere that gives products an elegant, silky texture. Can also scatter light to blur fine lines.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
An organic derivative of hectorite clay, Disteardimonium Hectorite is used as a viscosity controller - it thickens up formulations to make them less runny.It’s most popular use in cosmetics is in sunscreens, under the trademarked name Bentone 38 from Elementis.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | solvent |
A light-feeling, volatile silicone that gives skin a unique, silky and non-greasy feel. It has excellent spreading properties and leaves no oily residue or build-up.
what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
A silicone emulsifier that helps water and silicone oils to mix nicely together.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
A silicone emulsifier that helps water and silicone oils to mix nicely together.
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 | 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 | emulsifying |
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 | surfactant/cleansing |
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 |
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
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what‑it‑does | preservative | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
A little helper ingredient that works as a preservative. It works against bacteria and some species of fungi and yeast.
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what‑it‑does | preservative |
A very common type of feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient to make sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | moisturizer/humectant | viscosity controlling |
Officially, CosIng (the official EU ingredient database) lists Aluminum Hydroxide 's functions as opacifying (making the product white and non-transparent), as well as emollient and skin protectant.
However, with a little bit of digging, it turns out Aluminum Hyroxide often moonlights as a protective coating for UV filter superstar Titanium Dioxide.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Biopeptide El - A six amino acid peptide that is claimed to improve firmness (by 33% in one month) and skin tone (by 20%).
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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.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
A light and silky, silicone-based emulsifier that helps water and silicone oils to mix nicely together.
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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 | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
The big brother of glycerin. A natural moisturizing factor that compared to glycerin penetrates slower into the skin but gives longer lasting moisture and less sticky, better skin-feel.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
A fast spreading emollient ester (hexyl alcohol + lauric acid) that's used in water in oil emulsions or in water-free formulas. It gives a light skin feel.
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.
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A clear, light yellow liquid that is used to coat pigments (such as inorganic sunscreen agents or colorants) in cosmetic products.
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A type of silicone elastomer (rubber-like material with both viscosity and elasticity) whose major function is forming a nice film on the skin.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A white powdery thing that can mattify the skin and thicken up cosmetic products.
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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.
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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 |
A not so strong preservative that doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast.
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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.
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A mix of red, yellow and black iron oxide.
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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 |
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:
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
Synthetic colorant with smurf-like blue color.
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
Carmine is a natural pigment that gives a bright, strawberry red shade. It counts as a special snowflake as it is the only organic pink/red colorant permitted for use around the eye area in the US.
Outside of the US though, it is not that often used, as unlike most other colorants (that tend to be synthetic or if natural, plant-derived), Carmine
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
An inorganic (as in no carbon in its molecule, it is Cr2O3X(OH), the hydrated version of this guy) pigment that gives blue-green shades. It is not permitted in lip products in the US.
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
An inorganic (as in no carbon in its molecule, it is Cr2O3) pigment that gives dull olive green shades. It is not permitted in lip products in the US.
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
An inorganic (as in no carbon in its molecule) pigment that has a very intense, dark blue color. It is not permitted in lip products in the US, and only the version Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide is permitted in the EU.
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
An inorganic (as in no carbon in its molecule) pigment that can range in shade from blue (most common) to violet, pink or even green. It is not permitted in lip products in the US.
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what‑it‑does | colorant |
A super common colorant with the color yellow.
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