Bha, Aha, Pha & Lactic Acid Skin Brightening Solution
Highlights
Key Ingredients
Skim through
Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
---|---|---|---|
Aqua | solvent | ||
Alcohol Denat | antimicrobial/antibacterial, solvent, viscosity controlling | icky | |
Propylene Glycol | moisturizer/humectant, solvent | 0, 0 | |
Glycolic Acid | exfoliant, buffering | superstar | |
Cocamidopropyl Dimethylamine | emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | ||
Gluconolactone | exfoliant, chelating | superstar | |
Pentylene Glycol | solvent, moisturizer/humectant | ||
Salicylic Acid | exfoliant, anti-acne, soothing, preservative | superstar | |
Phytic Acid | chelating | ||
Sodium Hydroxide | buffering | ||
Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Bark/Leaf/Twig Extract | soothing, antioxidant, antimicrobial/antibacterial | goodie | |
Phenoxyethanol | preservative | ||
Allantoin | soothing | 0, 0 | goodie |
Lactic Acid | exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering | superstar | |
Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate | chelating |
Superdrug Deep Action Bha, Aha, Pha & Lactic Acid Skin Brightening SolutionIngredients explained
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.
- It's a super common and super debated skincare ingredient
- It has several benefits: great solvent, penetration enhancer, creates cosmetically elegant, light formulas, great astringent and antimicrobial
- It can be very drying if it's in the first few ingredients on an ingredient list
- Some experts even think that regular exposure to alcohol damages skin barrier and causes inflammation though it's a debated opinion (read more in geeky details tab)
- 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)
- It’s the most researched AHA with the most proven skin benefits
- It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
- It can help skin’s own collagen production that results in firmer, younger skin
- It can fade brown spots caused by sun damage or PIH
- Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
- Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)
- Slight stinging or burning with a stronger AHA product is normal
- If your skin is very sensitive, rosacea prone choose rather a BHA or PHA product
A surfactant with a positively charged head that has good foaming properties and can be used in cleansing products both for the skin and the hair.
If you see this guy in a non-cleansing product then it's probably combined with salicylic acid. The two together go by the trade name Curcylic 40, and cocamidopropyl dimethylamine works there to make salicylic acid water soluble and stable.
- It’s a polyhydroxy acid (PHA), that is often referred to as next generation AHA
- It gently lifts off dead skin cells form the skin surface making skin smooth and even
- In the long term it provides anti-aging benefits, like increased skin thickness and decreased wrinkles (though a tad less than even more proven superstar AHAs)
- It’s a great moisturizer and even helps to repair impaired skin barrier
- It’s antioxidant, and does not make your skin more sensitive to the sun
- It can be used even if your skin is very sensitive, rosacea prone or if you are post cosmetic procedure
A multi-functional, silky feeling helper ingredient that can do quite many things. It's used as an emulsion stabilizer, solvent and a broad spectrum antimicrobial. According to manufacturer info, it's also a moisturizer and helps to make the product feel great on the skin. It works synergistically with preservatives and helps to improve water-resistance of sunscreens.
- It's one of the gold standard ingredients for treating problem skin
- It can exfoliate skin both on the surface and in the pores
- It's a potent anti-inflammatory agent
- It's more effective for treating blackheads than acne
- For acne combine it with antibacterial agents like benzoyl peroxide or azelaic acid
Though its name says acid, it's not really an exfoliant. It's a plant extract with some antioxidant properties. Its main thing in cosmetic products is to neutralize the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. It's a natural alternative to sometimes bad-mouthed chelating agents, EDTAs.
The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right.
For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed.
BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers.
Sodium hydroxide in itself is a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totally harmless.
The extract coming from witch hazel that has astringent, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties. We have written in way more details about Hamamelis Virginiana Extract here >>
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.
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.
- It’s the second most researched AHA after glycolic acid
- It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
- It also has amazing skin hydrating properties
- In higher concentration (10% and up) it improves skin firmness, thickness and wrinkles
- Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
- Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
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what‑it‑does | solvent |
what‑it‑does | antimicrobial/antibacterial | solvent | viscosity controlling |
what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
what‑it‑does | exfoliant | buffering |
what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
what‑it‑does | exfoliant | chelating |
what‑it‑does | solvent | moisturizer/humectant |
what‑it‑does | exfoliant | anti-acne | soothing | preservative |
what‑it‑does | chelating |
what‑it‑does | buffering |
what‑it‑does | soothing | antioxidant | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
what‑it‑does | preservative |
what‑it‑does | soothing |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
what‑it‑does | exfoliant | moisturizer/humectant | buffering |
what‑it‑does | chelating |