Highlights
Key Ingredients
Other Ingredients
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| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talc | abrasive/​scrub | 0, 1 | |
| Calcium Silicate | viscosity controlling | ||
| Isopropyl Palmitate | emollient | 1, 3-4 | |
| Cetyl Acetate | emollient | 2, 4 | |
| Zinc Stearate | colorant, viscosity controlling | 0, 0 | |
| Fragrance | perfuming | icky | |
| Stearyl Acetate | emollient | ||
| Imidazolidinyl Urea | preservative | ||
| Methylparaben | preservative | 0, 0 | |
| Acetylated Lanolin Alcohol | emollient, emulsifying | 2, 4-5 | |
| Oleyl Acetate | emollient | ||
| Propylparaben | preservative, perfuming | 0, 0 | |
| Titanium Dioxide | colorant | 0, 0 | |
| Iron Oxides | colorant | 0, 0 | |
| Zinc Oxide] | sunscreen | 0, 1 | goodie |
Coty airspun Loose Face PowderIngredients explained
Talc is the major component of most powder makeup products (think face powder, eyeshadows, and blushers) that usually contain it up to 70%. Its two winning properties that make it very suitable for this role is its outstanding spreadability for a smooth application and its low covering power, aka translucency to avoid clown-like effects.
Chemically speaking, it is a clay mineral (hydrated magnesium silicate) that is mined in several countries. The drawback of mined minerals is potential impurities and the version used in cosmetics has to be white (not gray like cheaper grades), free from asbestos, sterilized and have thin plates for a maximum slip.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
A clear, colorless emollient ester (oily liquid from isopropyl alcohol + palmitic acid) that makes the skin nice and smooth. It has very good spreading properties and gives a silky touch to the products.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Zinc Stearate is probably the most commonly used binding agent in powder makeup products such as face powders or eyeshadows. It gives very good adherence qualities meaning it helps powders to stick together in the pan and to stick to the skin on application. It is typically used at 3-10%, too much of it though can cause lumpiness or greasiness on the skin.
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!).
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) showing that when exposed to sunlight, MP treated skin cells suffered more harm than non-MP treated skin cells. The study was not done with real people on real skin but still - using a good sunscreen next to MP containing products is a good idea. (Well, in fact using a sunscreen is always a good idea. :))
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
A very 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.
Ci 77891 is the color code of titanium dioxide. It's a white pigment with great color consistency and dispersibility.
A bit of a sloppy ingredient name as it covers not one but three pigments: red, yellow and black iron oxide.
The trio is invaluable for "skin-colored" makeup products (think your foundation and pressed powder) as blending these three shades carefully can produce almost any shade of natural-looking flesh tones.
When it comes to sunscreen agents, Zinc Oxide is pretty much in a league of its own. It's a physical (or inorganic) sunscreen that has a lot in common with fellow inorganic sunscreen Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) but a couple of things make it superior even to TiO2.
If physical sunscreens don't tell you anything, go ahead and read about the basics here. Most of what we wrote about Titanium Dioxide is also true for Zinc Oxide so we will focus here on the differences.
The first main difference is that while TiO2 gives a nice broad spectrum protection, Zinc Oxide has an even nicer and even broader spectrum protection. It protects against UVB, UVA II, and UVA I almost uniformly, and is considered to be the broadest range sunscreen available today.
It's also highly stable and non-irritating. So much so that Zinc Oxide also counts as a skin protectant and anti-irritant. It's also often used to treat skin irritations such as diaper rash.
As for the disadvantages, Zinc Oxide is also not cosmetically elegant. It leaves a disturbing whitish tint on the skin, although, according to a 2000 research paper by Dr. Pinnell, it's slightly less white than TiO2. Still, it's white and disturbing enough to use Zinc Oxide nanoparticles more and more often.
We wrote more about nanoparticles and the concerns around them here, but the gist is that if nanoparticles were absorbed into the skin that would be a reason for legitimate health concerns. But luckily, so far research shows that sunscreen nanoparticles are not absorbed but remain on the surface of the skin or in the uppermost (dead) layer of the skin. This seems to be true even if the skin is damaged, for example, sunburnt.
All in all, if you've found a Zinc Oxide sunscreen that you are happy to use every single day, that's fantastic and we suggest you stick with it. It's definitely one of the best, or probably even the best option out there for sun protection available worldwide.
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| what‑it‑does | abrasive/scrub |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
| what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| irritancy, com. | 1, 3-4 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| irritancy, com. | 2, 4 |
| what‑it‑does | colorant | viscosity controlling |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | perfuming |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying |
| irritancy, com. | 2, 4-5 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| what‑it‑does | preservative | perfuming |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | colorant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | sunscreen |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |