Paula's Choice
Omega+ Complex Moisturizer
Uploaded on 03/11/2019
Naturally restore dehydrated skin's glow with this cloud-like cream's blend
of superfood omega fatty acids, replenishing ceramides and antioxidants.
Zerafite
Skin Brightening Barrier Cream
Uploaded on 12/10/2023
A moisturizer that targets uneven skin tone & hyperpigmentation.
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 | 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 | emollient |
| 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 | 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.
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| what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
Part of Olivem 1000, a natural emulsifier duo that is known for forming biomimetic liquid crystal structures. It doubles as an active ingredient with barrier repairing and soothing properties.
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| what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
An ester coming from sorbitol and the fatty acids of olive oil. It often comes to the formula coupled with Cetearyl Olivate and the two together help water and oil to blend (emulsifier). It's a natural and Ecocert approved duo.
| 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.
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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 | 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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A 100% vegetable origin emulsifier that helps to create ultra-soft, light textures.
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| what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
A 100% vegetable origin emulsifier that usually comes to the formula with its buddy called C14-22 Alcohols. The duo is called Montanov L and two together help to create ultra-soft light formulas.
| what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | emollient | surfactant/cleansing |
The famous omega-6 fatty acid, the mother of all ω-6 fatty acids in our body. It is a so-called polyunsaturated fatty acid meaning it has more than one (in this case two) double bonds and a somewhat kinky structure that makes LA and LA-rich oils a thin liquid.It is also an essential fatty acid meaning our body cannot synthesize
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| what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | emollient | surfactant/cleansing | perfuming |
The famous omega-3 fatty acid, the mother of all ω-3 fatty acids in our body. Next to linoleic acid, it is the other essential fatty acid that our body cannot synthesize and we have to ingest it from our food.
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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 | 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 | 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 | skin brightening |
| 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 | emollient |
An odorless and colorless emollient ester that gives a velvety and silky feel to the skin.
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| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 1-3 |
The emollient plant oil that comes from almonds. Similar to other plant oils, it is loaded with skin-nourishing fatty acids (oleic acid - 55-86% and linoleic acid 7-35%) and contains several other skin goodies such as antioxidant vitamin E and vitamin B versions. It's a nice, basic oil that is often used due
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| what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient |
The oil-soluble extract coming from the edible, orange part of the carrot. It is created by macerating the carrot root in a carrier oil such as sunflower or olive oil, and the resulting thing (base oil + carrot root extract) is often called carrot oil or carrot root oil.
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| 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.
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| what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| 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 | antioxidant | skin brightening |
A stable form of Vitamin C, whose strong point is skin-brightening. It might also have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and collagen boosting abilities.
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| what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
| what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
| irritancy, com. | 2, 2 |
A handy multi-tasker, white to light yellowish oil-loving wax that works very well in oil-in-water emulsions. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), stabilizes oil-water mixes and gives body to them.Oh, and one more thing:
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| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling |
A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and stabilize emulsions.
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
A sugar-rich plant extract that is a great skin moisturizer and has also promising anti-inflammatory and photoprotective properties.
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| 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.
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| what‑it‑does | chelating | buffering |
A helper ingredient that is used to adjust the pH of the product. Also helps to keep products stay nice longer by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula.
| what‑it‑does | chelating | moisturizer/humectant |
The neutralized form of gluconic acid. It's a great ingredient to neutralize metal (especially iron and copper) ions in a cosmetic product. This helps to prevent discoloration of the formula over time or rancidity of cosmetic oils.
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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 | solvent | moisturizer/humectant |
A natural corn sugar derived glycol. It can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacy or to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.
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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 | 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 | emulsifying |
| what‑it‑does | solvent | emollient |
A biodegradable emollient that gives a fresh gliding sensation and a powdery after feel.
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| what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 3 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient | perfuming |
The oil coming from the plant Linum Usitatissimum or commonly called Flax. If you are into healthy eating, you probably know flaxseeds as a rich source of hard-to-eat-enough omega-3 fatty acids, or if you are into fashion, you probably have some light summer cloth made from linen.As for skincare, flaxseed oil is one of the few natural plant oils that is a rich source (35-65%) of
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| what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient | moisturizer/humectant |
Chia seed oil that is the richest known botanical source of skin moisturizing and probably anti-inflammatory alpha-linolenic acid (60%). A great skin-hydrator and also contains nice antioxidants.
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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 |
The emollient plant oil coming from the passion fruit. It is a high-linoleic acid oil (about 70% LA and 15% oleic acid), that makes your skin feel nice and smooth and supports a healthy skin barrier.
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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 | emollient |
Meadowfoam Oil - An emollient plant that is stable, non-greasy and rapidly absorbed. It gives a soft, smooth, silky skin feel.
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| what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying |
A common fatty acid that can be found in lots of plant oils. Its name, "oleic", means derived from olive oil, a plant oil rich in oleic acid, but avocado, macadamia and marula oils, just to name a few, are also oleic rich.
Its chemical structure is monounsaturated, meaning it has one double bond (cis-9) that makes it less kinky than polyunsaturated fatty acids with multi
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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 | 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An essential amino acid (important building block of collagen and elastin) that hydrates the skin.
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| 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.
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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 | 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 | emollient | emulsifying |
It's quite the multi-tasker: an emollient and water-binding ingredient but also an emulsifier and can be used for stabilization purposes. It's also often used to create liposomes.
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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 | 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.
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| 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.
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| what‑it‑does | chelating |
Though its name says acid, it's not really an exfoliant. It's a plant extract with some antioxidant properties. Its main thing in cosmetic products is to neutralize 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 | 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
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| 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.
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If you ever wondered what those little Listerine breath strips were made of, you found your answer! Pullulan is a polysaccharide polymer, which basically means that it’s a big molecule made up of smaller sugar molecule units.
It dissolves in water and can make a thin, elastic, and moisture-absorbing film when spread on the skin that can cause an instant tightening effect.
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| 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
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| 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.
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| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A big sugar molecule (polysaccharide) that is used as a natural thickening and gelling agent. It is similar to more commonly used Xanthan Gum, and the two are also often combined to create gel formulas or to stabilize emulsions.
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| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A super commonly used thickener and emulsion stabilizer.
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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 | preservative |
Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide.
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