
Cosiq Underarm Roll-on Serum For Women
Highlights
Key Ingredients
Other Ingredients
Skim through
Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
---|---|---|---|
Aloe Vera Leaf Extract | soothing, emollient, moisturizer/humectant | goodie | |
Fragrance | perfuming | icky | |
Cetyl Alcohol | emollient, viscosity controlling | 2, 2 | |
Cetyl Acetate | emollient | 2, 4 | |
Propylene Glycol | moisturizer/humectant, solvent | 0, 0 | |
Disodium EDTA | chelating | ||
Sodium Sulfite | preservative | ||
Sodium Metabisulfite | antioxidant, preservative | ||
Phenoxyethanol | preservative | ||
Ethylhexylglycerin | preservative | ||
Mandelic Acid | exfoliant, antimicrobial/antibacterial | goodie | |
Liquorice Extract | soothing, skin brightening | superstar | |
Alpha-Glucan Oligosaccharide | goodie | ||
Xanthan Gum | viscosity controlling | ||
Cellulose Gum | viscosity controlling | 0, 0 | |
Sodium Acetate | buffering |
COS-IQ Cosiq Underarm Roll-on Serum For WomenIngredients explained
The extract coming from the juice containing leaves of the Aloe vera plant. It's usually a hydroglycolic extract (though oil extract for the lipid parts also exists) that has similar moisturizing, emollient and anti-inflammatory properties as the juice itself. We have written some more about aloe here.
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.
Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. It’s definitely a smart thing to avoid with sensitive skin (and fragrance of any type - natural is just as allergic as synthetic, if not worse!).
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.
- It's a helper ingredient that improves the freeze-thaw stability of products
- It's also a solvent, humectant and to some extent a penetration enhancer
- It has a bad reputation among natural cosmetics advocates but cosmetic scientists and toxicology experts do not agree (read more in the geeky details section)
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.
It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
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.
- Mandelic acid is an AHA that comes from bitter almond
- It can gently lift off dead surface skin cells and make the skin more smooth and even
- It has antibacterial properties
- It’s promising against acne and post inflammatory hyperpigmentation
- It’s light sensitive, so choose a product with opaque packaging
You might know licorice as a sweet treat from your childhood, but it's actually a legume that grows around the Mediterranean Sea, the Middle East, central and southern Russia. It's sweet and yellow and not only used for licorice all sorts but it's also a skincare superstar thanks to two magic properties:
Nr. 1 magic property is that it has skin-lightening or to say it another way depigmenting properties. The most active part is called glabridin. The topical application (meaning when you put it on your face) of 0.5% glabridin was shown to inhibit UVB caused pigmentation of guinea pigs. Another study even suggested that licorice is more effective than the gold standard skin-lightening agent hydroquinone. All in all, licorice is considered to be one of the safest skin lightening agents with the fewest side effects.
There is just one catch regarding glabridin and licorice: the amount of glabridin in commercial licorice extracts can vary a lot. We have seen extracts with only 4% glabridin as well as 40% glabridin. The latter one is a very-very expensive ingredient, so if you are after the depigmenting properties try to choose a product that boasts its high-quality licorice extract.
Nr. 2 magic property is that licorice is a potent anti-inflammatory. Glabridin has also some soothing properties but the main active anti-inflammatory component is glycyrrhizin. It’s used to treat several skin diseases that are connected to inflammation including atopic dermatitis, rosacea or eczema.
Oh, and one more thing: glabridin seems to be also an antioxidant, which is just one more reason to be happy about licorice root extract on an ingredient list.
Bottom line: Licorice is a great skincare ingredient with significant depigmenting, anti-inflammatory and even some antioxidant properties. Be happy if it's on the ingredient list. :)
A skin protecting ingredient obtained by enzymatic synthesis from natural sugars (sucrose and maltose). It's claimed to be a bio-selective substrate that protects and stimulates the beneficial microbial skin flora without doing the same with pathogens and undesirable flora. It also stimulates the antimicrobial peptide release by keratinocytes (skin cells).
It's one of the most commonly used thickeners and emulsion stabilizers. If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like. Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-called rheology modifiers (helper ingredients that adjust the flow and thus the feel of the formula). The typical use level of Xantha Gum is below 1%, it is usually in the 0.1-0.5% range.
Btw, Xanthan gum is all natural, a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide) produced from individual sugar molecules (glucose and sucrose) via fermentation. It’s approved by Ecocert and also used in the food industry (E415).
A cellulose (the big molecule found in the cell wall of green plants) derivative that is used as an emulsion stabilizer and thickener.
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what‑it‑does | soothing | emollient | moisturizer/humectant |
what‑it‑does | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling |
irritancy, com. | 2, 2 |
what‑it‑does | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 2, 4 |
what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
what‑it‑does | chelating |
what‑it‑does | preservative |
what‑it‑does | antioxidant | preservative |
what‑it‑does | preservative |
what‑it‑does | preservative |
what‑it‑does | exfoliant | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
what‑it‑does | soothing | skin brightening |
what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
what‑it‑does | buffering |