
Grease Lightning
Highlights
Skim through
Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
---|---|---|---|
Thyme | perfuming | ||
Rosemary | antioxidant, soothing, antimicrobial/antibacterial | goodie | |
Tea Tree | soothing, anti-acne, antioxidant, antimicrobial/antibacterial, perfuming | goodie | |
Infusion Of Water (Aqua) | solvent | ||
Fair Trade Organic Aloe Vera Gel | soothing, emollient, moisturizer/humectant | goodie | |
Fresh Sea Water | moisturizer/humectant, solvent | ||
Grape Juice | antioxidant | ||
Carrageenan Extract | moisturizer/humectant, viscosity controlling | goodie | |
Lavender Oil | antimicrobial/antibacterial, perfuming | icky | |
Witch Hazel Extract | soothing, antioxidant, antimicrobial/antibacterial | goodie | |
*Linalool | perfuming | icky | |
Perfume | perfuming | icky | |
Methylparaben | preservative | 0, 0 |
Lush Grease LightningIngredients explained
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
The extract coming from the lovely herb, rosemary. It contains lots of chemicals, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, and diterpenes. Its main active is rosmarinic acid, a potent antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. It has also anti-bacterial, astringent and toning properties.
The leaves contain a small amount of essential oil (1-2%) with fragrant components, so if you are allergic to fragrance, it might be better to avoid it.
The famous tea tree oil. One of the best known essential oils which comes from Australia where it has been used for almost 100 years for its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory actions. Legend has it that the medicinal benefits of the oil were considered so important that Australian soldiers were supplied with some tea tree oil in their World War II military kit.
Similar to other essential oils, tea tree oil is a very complex chemical mixture consisting of about 100 components, the major ones being terpinen-4-ol (40%), γ-Terpinene (23%) and α-Terpinene (10%). Terpinen-4-ol is considered to be the main active component but as a great article in Clinical Microbiology Reviews states "while some TTO components may be considered less active, none can be considered inactive" and most components contribute to TTO's strong antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal effects.
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.
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.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
The extract of red seaweed that has nice film-forming, skin smoothing and moisturizing properties.
The manufacturer claims that thanks to biomimetic properties between skin proteins and carrageenans it has a very long-lasting action and can form a "second skin". It also gives a "slow-release" effect to oil-loving active ingredients and measurably reduces trans-epidermal water loss (that's pretty much a synonym of saying that it moisturizes the skin).
We have to start by writing how fascinated we are by the amazing lavender fields of Provance and we do love pretty much everything about lavender: its look, its color, its scent.... but, when it comes to skincare, lavender is a questionable ingredient that you probably do not want in your skincare products.
First, let us start with the pros: it has a lovely scent, so no wonder that it is popular as a fragrance ingredient in natural products wanting to be free from synthetic fragrances but still wanting to smell nice. The scent of lavender is famous for having calming and relaxing properties and some smallish scientific studies do support that. Inhaled volatile compounds seem to have a soothing effect on the central nervous system and studies have shown that lavender aromatherapy can improve patient's anxiety and experience in hospitals.
Witch hazel is a smallish tree (up to 5m) that's native to North-America, has nice yellow flowers and is similar to the hazelnut bush (hence the name).
As for skincare, it's loaded with active components that have a bunch of magic properties, like astringent, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-bacterial. It's also a well-known vasoconstrictor (it makes the blood vessels narrower) and promotes the healing of broken skin by tightening up the skin proteins and thus creating a protective covering.
Linalool is a super common fragrance ingredient. It’s kind of everywhere - both in plants and in cosmetic products. It’s part of 200 natural oils including lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot, jasmine, geranium and it can be found in 90-95% of prestige perfumes on the market.
The problem with linalool is, that just like limonene it oxidises on air exposure and becomes allergenic. That’s why a product containing linalool that has been opened for several months is more likely to be allergenic than a fresh one.
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.
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. :))
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what‑it‑does | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | antioxidant | soothing | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
what‑it‑does | soothing | anti-acne | antioxidant | antimicrobial/antibacterial | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | solvent |
what‑it‑does | soothing | emollient | moisturizer/humectant |
what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | viscosity controlling |
what‑it‑does | antimicrobial/antibacterial | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | soothing | antioxidant | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
what‑it‑does | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | perfuming |
what‑it‑does | preservative |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |