Highlights
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | solvent | ||
| Polyquaternium-11 | |||
| Butane | |||
| Propane | |||
| Isobutane | |||
| Alcohol Denat | antimicrobial/antibacterial, solvent, viscosity controlling | icky | |
| Isosteareth-20 | emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | ||
| Benzalkonium Chloride | antimicrobial/antibacterial, preservative, surfactant/cleansing | ||
| Parfum | perfuming | icky |
Taft Styling Mousse Maximum HoldIngredients 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.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
A colorless and odorless gas used as a propellant in cosmetic products that come in a spray form.
The small sister of Butane (once carbon shorter chain length alkane), Propane is also a gas used as a propellant in cosmetic products.
A colorless gas used as a propellant in cosmetic products that come in a spray form. Chemically, it is an isomer of butane (same number of C and H atoms), but while butane has a straight chain structure, isobutane is branched.
- 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)
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
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!).
You may also want to take a look at...
| what‑it‑does | solvent |
| what‑it‑does | antimicrobial/antibacterial | solvent | viscosity controlling |
| what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
| what‑it‑does | antimicrobial/antibacterial | preservative | surfactant/cleansing |
| what‑it‑does | perfuming |