Aqua (Water)
Also-called: Water | What-it-does: solvent
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.
Niacinamide - superstar
Also-called: vitamin B3, nicotinamide | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant
- A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
- Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
- Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
- Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
- Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis
Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >>
N-Acetyl Glucosamine - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, skin brightening
An amino acid sugar that can be foundin the skin and does there good and important things. One of them is thatit's a precursor for the biosynthesis of superstar moisturizer, hyaluronic acid. So acetyl glucosamineitself is also an important skin-identical ingredient and natural moisturizing factor.
But that is not all, acetyl glucosamine has two other great properties proved by double-blind clinical trials. First, it's a promising ingredient against wrinkles:2% can improvewrinkles, particularly in the eye area.
Second, the same amount can also fade- always stubborn -brown spots.(Do not expect magic,though - the photos from the study show the difference after 8 weeks of daily use. The difference is visible, but not that big. It's alwaysgood to have realistic expectations. :)) Combined with skincare superstar niacinamide the duo is synergistic and is more effective at improving hyperpigmentation, so if you are after the skin-lightening benefit look out for products that contain both.
Ethylhexyl Palmitate
What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2-4
A super common, medium-spreading emollient ester that gives richness to the formulaand a mild feel during rubout. It can be a replacement for mineral oil and is often combined with other emollients to achievedifferent sensorial properties.
Cetyl Alcohol
What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 2 | Comedogenicity: 2
A so-calledfatty (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.
Isostearyl Isostearate
What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 1 | Comedogenicity: 4
An emollient ester (oily liquid from IsostearylAlcohol + Isostearic Acid) that gives excellent slip, lubricity andluxurious softness on skin. It's also popular in makeup products to disperse pigments nicely and evenly.
Potassium Cetyl Phosphate
What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing
A white to beige powder that is described as the goldenstandard emulsifier for emulsions (oil+water mixtures) that are difficult to stabilize. It is especially popular in sunscreens as it can boost SPF protection and increase the water-resistance of the formula.
Cetyl Behenate
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Behenic Acid
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate
What-it-does: emollient, antimicrobial/antibacterial
An often used emollient with a light and silky feel. It's very mild to both skin and eyes and spreads nicely and easily. It's often used in sunscreens as it's also an excellent solvent for sunscreen agents.
Cetyl Alcohol
What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 2 | Comedogenicity: 2
A so-calledfatty (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.
Hydrogenated Olive Oil
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil - goodie
Also-called: Olive Fruit Oil | What-it-does: antioxidant, emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2
You probably know olive oil from the kitchen as a great and healthy option for salad dressing but it's also agreat and healthy option to moisturize and nourish the skin, especially if it's on the dry side.
Similar to other emollient plant oils, it's loaded with nourishing fatty acids: oleic is the main component (55-83%), and also contains linoleic (3.5-20%) and palmitic acids (7-20%). It also contains antioxidant polyphenols, tocopherols (types of vitamin E) and carotenoids and it's one of the best plant sources of skin-identical emollient, Squalene.
Overall, a great option for dry skin butless so for acne-prone or damaged skin.
Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil Unsaponifiables
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Olive Oil PEG-7 Esters
What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying
An olive oil-derived, water-soluble, but"oily" liquid that works both as an emollient (makes skin nice and smooth) and as a co-emulsifier.
It's claimed to offer a distinctive skin smoothness and long-term moisturizing effects while also being great at solubilizing fragrances into water-based products or being a co-emulsifier in oil-in-water emulsions.
Sodium Acrylates Copolymer
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
A big molecule from repeated subunits that is used to form gel-like textures and create a film on the skin.
Lecithin - goodie
What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying
A very common ingredient that can be found inall cell membranes. In cosmetics it's quite the multi-tasker: it's an emollient and water-binding ingredient but it's also an emulsifier and can be used for stabilization purposes. It's also often used to create liposomes.
Hydroxylated Lecithin
What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Phosphatidylcholine
What-it-does: emulsifying
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
PPG-3 Benzyl Ether Ethylhexanoate
What-it-does: emollient
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Urea - goodie
Also-called: Carbamide | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant
Yes, it's the thing that can be found naturally in pee. And in the skin. It is an awesome natural moisturizing factor, aka NMF.NMFs are important components that help the skin to hold onto water and keep it plump, elastic and hydrated. Urea makes up about 7% of NMFs next to other things such as amino acids (40%), PCA (12%) or Lactate (12%).
What makes urea special, is that it is not only a simple moisturizer, but it is thought to be a "small-molecule regulator of epidermal structure and function" meaning that it has a bunch of extra biological activities. It acts asa mild keratolytic agent(some of its moisturizingaction is thought to come from urea's abilityto break down bonds in the protein called filaggrin and thus freeing up amino acids in the skin), enhancesantimicrobial peptide expression and improvesskin barrier function.
Being a mild keratolytic agent and strong moisturizermeans that high-percentage (10-40%) urea treatments are found effective in a bunch of skin disorders connected to excessive dryness and malfunctioning skin barrier such as ichthyosis, xerosis, psoriasis,eczema and seborrheic dermatitis.
Overall, just like glycerin, urea is a real oldie but a goodie, a nice ingredientin anymoisturizer.
Sodium PCA - goodie
Also-called: Sodium Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
PCA stands for Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid and though it might not sound like it, it is a thing that can be found naturally in our skin. The sodium salt form of PCA is an important skin-identical ingredient and great natural moisturizer that helps the skin to hold onto water and stay nicely hydrated.
Sodium Lactate - goodie
What-it-does: buffering, moisturizer/humectant
The sodium salt oflactic acid. It's a great skin moisturizer and also used to regulate the pH value of the cosmetic formula. It's a natural ingredient approved by bothECOCERT and COSMOS.
Lactic Acid - superstar
What-it-does: exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering
- 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)
Read all the geeky details about Lactic Acid here >>
Urea - goodie
Also-called: Carbamide | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant
Yes, it's the thing that can be found naturally in pee. And in the skin. It is an awesome natural moisturizing factor, aka NMF.NMFs are important components that help the skin to hold onto water and keep it plump, elastic and hydrated. Urea makes up about 7% of NMFs next to other things such as amino acids (40%), PCA (12%) or Lactate (12%).
What makes urea special, is that it is not only a simple moisturizer, but it is thought to be a "small-molecule regulator of epidermal structure and function" meaning that it has a bunch of extra biological activities. It acts asa mild keratolytic agent(some of its moisturizingaction is thought to come from urea's abilityto break down bonds in the protein called filaggrin and thus freeing up amino acids in the skin), enhancesantimicrobial peptide expression and improvesskin barrier function.
Being a mild keratolytic agent and strong moisturizermeans that high-percentage (10-40%) urea treatments are found effective in a bunch of skin disorders connected to excessive dryness and malfunctioning skin barrier such as ichthyosis, xerosis, psoriasis,eczema and seborrheic dermatitis.
Overall, just like glycerin, urea is a real oldie but a goodie, a nice ingredientin anymoisturizer.
Inositol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Ribose
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Glycine - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient
A non-essential amino acid (the building blocks of skin proteins, like collagen or elastin), that the body can produce itself, but its production decreases with age. When you put it all over your face, it works as a moisturizer and maybe more.
According to great skincare blogFuturederm, glycine might help with wound healing and tissue repair and when used together with other amino acids,leucine and proline it might improve wrinkles.
BTW, it's also a building block of a bunch of important and famous peptides, including copper-tripeptide-1, palmitoyl tripeptide-1 or palmitoylhexapeptide-12.
Caprylyl Glycol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, emollient, deodorant
It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives, such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol.
The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product. It's a popular duo.
Hydroxypropyl Cyclodextrin
A type of bucket or donut-shaped molecule with a water-loving outer side and an oil-loving inner side that is used mostly to encapsulate other actives in cosmetics.
Ethylhexylglycerin
What-it-does: preservative, deodorant
If you have spottedethylhexylglycerinon the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative,phenoxyethanol. They are good friends becauseethylhexylglycerincan boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.
Also,it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.
Sodium Hyaluronate - goodie
What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF,hyaluronic acid(HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.
As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephenwrites on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".
In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checkedProspector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight).
What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate andcheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.
If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid(including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature).
Tetrapeptide-21 - goodie
Also-called: TEGO Pep 4-17 | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient
A four amino acid (Glycine – Glutamic acid – Lysine – Glycine) peptide that belongs to the group of signal peptides that mimic skin-protein breakdown products to trick the skin into creating some nice new skin proteins, such as collagen (if this sentence is not clear, here is a bit longer and nicer explanation).
According to its manufacturer,Tetrapeptide-21 shows superior collagen, hyaluronic acid and fibronectin (all nice and importantskin elements) boosting activity, and can smooth and minimize all kinds of wrinkles. The in-vitro data (made on human dermal fibroblast culture) showed that compared to Matrixyl (the first-generation Matrixyl peptide called Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4),the collagenproduction in the presence of Tetrapeptide-21 wasalmost 2-fold higher (andabout 2.5-fold vs the control). This data was confirmed by an in-vivo study that compared on 60 volunteers 0.5% Tego Pep 4-17 (10ppm ofTetrapeptide-21), 5% Tego Pep 4-17 (100ppm ofTetrapeptide-21) and 10% Matrixyl (10ppm ofPalmitoyl Pentapeptide-4) and found thatTetrapeptide-21 performed better after 8 weeks for skin volume, roughness and elasticity.
The manufacturer also did another 60 people anti-wrinkle study with 4% Tego Pep 4-17 (compared to vehicle) where theyhave some nice before and after pictures showing visible-to-the-naked-eye wrinkle reduction around the eye area.
Tetradecyl Aminobutyroylvalylaminobutyric Urea Trifluoroacetate - goodie
Also-called: SYN-HYCAN | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient
A small, three amino acid synthetic tripeptide with amolecular weight smaller than 500 Da (500 Da is often referred to as the limit for proper skin penetration).
The manufacturer claims that it can boost the synthesis of hyaluronic acid in the skin (up to 300% based on in-vitro tests) that is important for proper skin hydration and plumpness. It can also improvecollagen fiber quality by increasing some structural skin elements (so-called proteoglycans), like decorin and lumican.
The peptide is suggested for firming and remodelling treatments, as well as against skin sagging. It's also marketed as a "needle-free hyaluronan booster".
Palmitoyl Dipeptide-5 Diaminobutyroyl Hydroxythreonine - goodie
Also-called: Syn-Tacks | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
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.
EDTA
What-it-does: chelating
An abbreviation that pops up on alot of ingredient lists. It stands forEthyleneDiamineTetraacetic Acid and it's a famous molecule for being an excellentchelating agent, i.e. a molecule that can bind to metal ions (coming usually from water) and make them harmless in a cosmetic formula. With a chelating agent, cosmetic formulas stay nice longer.
EDTA is an acid molecule and its salt versions are even more often used, such as the super commonDisodium EDTA.
Parfum (Fragrance) - icky
Also-called: Fragrance, Parfum;Parfum/Fragrance | What-it-does: perfuming
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!).