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arey grey Mend

Mend

A rich, nourishing leave-in conditioner that helps hair look and feel healthier, Mend provides protection from heat styling.
Uploaded by: wendyhan on

Skim through

Ingredient name what-it-does irr., com. ID-Rating
Water (Aqua) solvent
Cetyl Alcohol emollient, viscosity controlling 2, 2
Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing
Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil emollient 0, 0-2 goodie
Sr-Hydrozoan Polypeptide-1 (Vegan Collagen) moisturizer/​humectant, sunscreen
Panthenol soothing, moisturizer/​humectant 0, 0 goodie
Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter emollient goodie
Glycerin skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant 0, 0 superstar
Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate antioxidant, skin brightening goodie
Behenyl/Stearyl Aminopropanediol Esters
Behentrimonium Chloride preservative
Salvia Hispanica Seed Extract emollient
Polyquaternium-37 viscosity controlling
Ethyl Linoleate emollient, perfuming
Ethyl Oleate emollient, perfuming
Hydrolyzed Barley Protein
Coffea Arabica (Coffee) Seed Extract
Panax Ginseng Root Extract antioxidant, emollient goodie
Zanthoxylum Bungeanum Fruit Extract
Humulus Lupulus (Hops) Flower Extract
Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Seed Extract soothing
Wasabia Japonica Leaf Extract antimicrobial/​antibacterial
Glycine Soja (Soybean) Germ Extract emollient
Polygonum Multiflorum (Fo-Ti) Root Extract
Biotin
Caffeine antioxidant, perfuming goodie
Trehalose moisturizer/​humectant goodie
Allantoin soothing 0, 0 goodie
Cetrimonium Chloride antimicrobial/​antibacterial, emulsifying, preservative, surfactant/​cleansing
Xylitol moisturizer/​humectant goodie
Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside surfactant/​cleansing
Sorbitan Oleate emulsifying 0, 3
Fragrance (Parfum)* perfuming icky
Ethylhexylglycerin preservative
Sodium Benzoate preservative
Potassium Sorbate preservative
Sodium Phosphate buffering
Citric Acid buffering

arey grey Mend
Ingredients explained

Also-called: Aqua | What-it-does: solvent

Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product. 

It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water. 

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 2 | Comedogenicity: 2

A so-called fatty (the good, non-drying kind of) alcohol that does all kinds of things in a skincare product: it makes your skin feel smooth and nice (emollient), helps to thicken up products and also helps water and oil to blend (emulsifier). Can be derived from coconut or palm kernel oil.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Jojoba Oil | What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2

Jojoba is a drought resistant evergreen shrub native to South-western North America. It's known and grown for jojoba oil, the golden yellow liquid coming from the seeds (about 50% of the weight of the seeds will be oil).  

At first glance, it seems like your average emollient plant oil: it looks like an oil and it's nourishing and moisturizing to the skin but if we dig a bit deeper, it turns out that jojoba oil is really special and unique: technically - or rather chemically - it's not an oil but a wax ester (and calling it an oil is kind of sloppy). 

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Panthenol - goodie
Also-called: Pro-Vitamin B5 | What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. As you might guess from the “pro” part, it’s a precursor to vitamin B5 (whose fancy name is pantothenic acid). 

Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. There is also research showing that panthenol can help our skin to produce more lovely lipids that are important for a strong and healthy skin barrier. 

Also-called: Shea Butter | What-it-does: emollient

Unless you live under a rock you must have heard about shea butter. It's probably the most hyped up natural butter in skincare today. It comes from the seeds of African Shea or Karite Trees and used as a magic moisturizer and emollient.

But it's not only a simple emollient, it regenerates and soothes the skin, protects it from external factors (such as UV rays or wind) and is also rich in antioxidants (among others vitamin A, E, F, quercetin and epigallocatechin gallate). If you are looking for rich emollient benefits + more, shea is hard to beat. 

Glycerin - superstar
Also-called: Glycerol | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
  • A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
  • A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
  • Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
  • Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
  • High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

Also-called: Form of Vitamin C, THDA | What-it-does: antioxidant, skin brightening

Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate is a stable, oil-soluble form of skincare big shot Vitamin C. If you do not know, why Vitamin C is such a big deal in skincare, click here and read all about it. We are massive vitamin C fans and have written about it in excruciating detail.

So now, you know that Vitamin C is great and all, but it's really unstable and gives cosmetics companies many headaches. To solve this problem they came up with vitamin C derivatives, and one of them is Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (let's call it THDA in short).

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: preservative

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: emollient

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: viscosity controlling

A cationic polymer molecule (a big molecule with repeated subunits and a positive charge) that acts both as a film-former and conditioning ingredient as well as a thickening agent

Also-called: Vitamin F Ethyl Ester | What-it-does: emollient, perfuming

A type of oil soluble vitamin F that is used as an emollient. Read more at ethyl oleate.

Also-called: Vitamin F Ethyl Ester | What-it-does: emollient, perfuming

It's a Vitamin F Ethyl Ester, that is used as an emollient. Coupled with other two forms of vitamin F ethyl ester (ethyl linoleate and ethyl linolenate), the trio is intended to treat dry, seborrheic skin with damaged lipid barrier and dry scalps with brittle and shine-less hair.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: True Ginseng, Ginseng, Korean Ginseng | What-it-does: antioxidant, emollient

A  traditional Korean medicine used for more than 2000 years. Regarding skin care, its main thing seems to be enhancing skin nutrition and metabolism as a result of improving blood circulation.

It also contains biologically active components referred to as ginseng saponins (ginsenosides) that have potent antioxidant properties

Also-called: Szechuan Pepper Fruit Extact

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Hops Flower Extract

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: soothing

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: emollient

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Fo Ti Root

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Vitamin H

Also called vitamin H, biotin is the main component of many enzymes in our body. A nice ingredient to take as a supplement for stronger nails and hair. When you do not take it as a supplement its effects are a bit more questionable but according to manufacturer info it can smooth the skin and strengthen the hair.

Caffeine - goodie
What-it-does: antioxidant, perfuming

Hello, our favorite molecule that helps us wake up in the morning and then keeps us going through the day. As a super well-known stimulant from coffee, tea and plenty of other soft drinks, Caffeine needs no introduction. So we will skip right to the part where we talk about what the hell it does in so-so many cosmetic products.

Looking at the research, we were surprised to find how versatile Caffeine is. It is a small, water-loving molecule with pretty good skin penetration abilties. Once in the skin, it has nice antioxidant properties, meaning that it reduces the formation of evil free radicals and it might even be useful in preventing UV-induced skin cancers. 

Trehalose - goodie
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant

A type of sugar that has water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated

Allantoin - goodie
What-it-does: soothing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmetic products is produced synthetically. 

It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Xylitol - goodie
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant

A type of sugar that's part of a moisturizing trio called Aquaxyl. You can read more about its magic properties at xylitylglucoside

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: emulsifying | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 3

A mainly oil-loving, vegetable raw material based ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier. It can also function as a wetting and dispersing agent helping insoluble particles such as color pigments or inorganic sunscreens (zinc/titanium dioxide) to disperse nice and even in liquids.  

Chemically speaking, it comes from the attachment of sorbitan (a dehydrated sorbitol (sugar) molecule) with the unsaturated fatty acid Oleic Acid, that creates a partly water (the sorbitan part) and partly oil soluble (oleic part) molecule. 

Also-called: Fragrance, Parfum;Parfum/Fragrance | What-it-does: perfuming

Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. Fragrance in the US and parfum in the EU is a generic term on the ingredient list that is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average (but it can have as much as 200 components!). 

If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it.  

What-it-does: preservative, deodorant

If you have spotted ethylhexylglycerin on the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol. They are good friends because ethylhexylglycerin can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.

Also, it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreading emollient

What-it-does: preservative

A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It works mainly against fungi. 

It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5). It’s not strong enough to be used in itself so it’s always combined with something else, often with potassium sorbate.

What-it-does: preservative

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and the right pH value (pH 3-4). 

But even if everything is right, it’s not enough on its own. If you see potassium sorbate you should see some other preservative next to it too.

What-it-does: buffering

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

What-it-does: buffering

Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. If these magic three letters don’t tell you anything, click here and read our detailed description on glycolic acid, the most famous AHA. 

So citric acid is an exfoliant, that can - just like other AHAs - gently lift off the dead skin cells of your skin and make it more smooth and fresh. 

You may also want to take a look at...

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 | 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 emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing
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. [more]
what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant | sunscreen
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. [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 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 antioxidant | skin brightening
A stable, oil-soluble form of Vitamin C, that might have (in-vitro results) all the magic abilities of pure vitamin C (antioxidant, collagen booster, skin brightener). [more]
what‑it‑does preservative
what‑it‑does emollient
what‑it‑does viscosity controlling
A cationic polymer molecule (a big molecule with repeated subunits and a positive charge) that acts both as a film-former and conditioning ingredient as well as a thickening agent.  [more]
what‑it‑does emollient | perfuming
A type of oil soluble vitamin F that is used as an emollient. Read more at ethyl oleate. [more]
what‑it‑does emollient | perfuming
It's a Vitamin F Ethyl Ester, that is used as an emollient. Coupled with other two forms of vitamin F ethyl ester (ethyl linoleate and ethyl linolenate), the trio is intended to treat dry, seborrheic skin with damaged lipid barrier and dry scalps with brittle and shine-less hair. [more]
what‑it‑does antioxidant | emollient
Ginseng - A traditional Korean medicine that has antioxidant properties, and is known to improve blood circulation. [more]
what‑it‑does soothing
what‑it‑does antimicrobial/antibacterial
what‑it‑does emollient
Vitamin H is a great supplement for stronger nails and hair. As a skincare ingredient, it's a bit more questionable, but it might smooth the skin and strengthen the hair. [more]
what‑it‑does antioxidant | perfuming
The well-known stimulant from coffee. It has nice antioxidant properties and can improve the microcirculation. Might be helpful for dark circles, puffy eyes, as well as cellulite and hair loss. [more]
what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant
A type of sugar that has water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated. 
what‑it‑does soothing
irritancy, com. 0, 0
Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmetic products is produced synthetically. It's not only soothing but it' [more]
what‑it‑does antimicrobial/antibacterial | emulsifying | preservative | surfactant/cleansing
what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant
A type of sugar that's part of a moisturizing trio called Aquaxyl. You can read more about its magic properties at xylitylglucoside.  [more]
what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing
what‑it‑does emulsifying
irritancy, com. 0, 3
A mainly oil-loving, vegetable raw material based ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier. It can also function as a wetting and dispersing agent helping insoluble particles such as color pigments or inorganic sunscreens (zinc/titanium dioxide) to disperse nice and even in liquids.   [more]
what‑it‑does perfuming
The generic term for nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. It is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average. [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 preservative
A preservative that works mainly against fungi. Has to be combined with other preservatives. [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 buffering
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. [more]