Ingredients overview
Highlights
Other Ingredients
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tretinoin | cell-communicating ingredient | superstar | |
| Tocopherol Acetate | antioxidant | 0, 0 | |
| Cetyl Alcohol | emollient, viscosity controlling | 2, 2 | |
| Cetyl Palmitate | emollient | 0, 0 | |
| Propylene Glycol | moisturizer/humectant, solvent | 0, 0 | |
| Sodium Lauryl Sulfate | surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying | com.:0 | icky |
| Methyl Parahydroxybenzoate | preservative | 0, 0 | |
| Propyl Parahydroxybenzoate | preservative, perfuming | 0, 0 | |
| Purified Water | solvent |
Orion Pharma Avitcid 0,025 %, 0,05 %Ingredients explained
- Tretinoin (a metabolite of vitamin A) is the gold standard anti-aging ingredient that is also FDA-approved (and it's the only one so far!)
- It's an all around skin issue fixer as it works at the skin cell level and makes your skin cells behave in a healthy and normal way
- It makes the skin less wrinkled, firmer, smoother and tighter, everything you could want from an anti-aging ingredient
- It's also an effective acne treatment. It normalizes keratinization and makes the pores produce less sebum
- It's also a skin lightener though not as effective as gold-standard hydroquinone.
- Side effects with tretinoin are very common. Irritation, skin flaking, redness, and drier skin are usual
- Do not use tretinoin (or any form of retinoids) while pregnant
- To minimize side effects introduce tretinoin slowly into your routine (see more how to use tips in geeky details)
It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here. This one is the so-called esterified version.
According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life, it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin and may not have the same awesome photoprotective effects as pure Vit E.
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.
A white, waxy emollient that gives "body" to skincare formulas. Comes from coconut or palm kernel oil.
- 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)
The famous or rather infamous SLS (not to be confused with SLES). It is a cleansing agent known for being too good at the job and potentially irritating the skin. But, on the positive side, it can produce copious, creamy and luxurious foam compared to the more gentle and thus nowadays much more commonly used Sodium Laureth Sulfate.
In fact, SLS is so good at irritating the skin that it is very commonly used in dermatological studies just for that. It is a so-called "primary irritant", a substance that irritates the skin in one go (without prior sensitization) but doesn't do any other big harm (such as being carcinogenic or systematically toxic - those claims are not true). Also, the formula can greatly influence the irritating potential of SLS, and mixing it with other cleaning agents makes it milder.
If it's not in a cleanser, it works as an emulsifier or even as a penetration enhancer for active materials.
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. :))
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.
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.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
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| what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
| what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling |
| irritancy, com. | 2, 2 |
| what‑it‑does | emollient |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying |
| com. | 0 |
| what‑it‑does | preservative |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | preservative | perfuming |
| irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
| what‑it‑does | solvent |