Zinc Oxide (12%) - goodie
What-it-does: sunscreen | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1
When it comes to sunscreen agents, Zinc Oxide ispretty much in aleague of its own. It's a physical (or inorganic) sunscreenthat has a lot in common with fellow inorganic sunscreen Titanium Dioxide(TiO2) but a couple of things make it superior even toTiO2.
If physical sunscreensdon't tell you anything, go ahead and read about the basics here. Most of what we wrote about Titanium Dioxideis also true for Zinc Oxide so we will focus here on the differences.
The first main difference is that while TiO2 gives a nice broad spectrum protection, Zinc Oxide has an even nicerand even broader spectrum protection. It protects against UVB, UVA II, and UVA I almost uniformly, and is considered to be the broadestrange sunscreen available today.
It'salso highly stableand non-irritating. So much sothat Zinc Oxide also counts as a skin protectant and anti-irritant. It's also often used to treat skin irritationssuch as diaper rash.
As for the disadvantages, Zinc Oxide is also not cosmetically elegant. Itleaves a disturbing whitish tint on the skin, although, according toa2000research paper by Dr. Pinnell, it's slightlyless white than TiO2. Still, it's white and disturbing enough to use Zinc Oxide nanoparticles more and more often.
We wrote more about nanoparticles and the concerns around them here, but the gist is that if nanoparticles were absorbed into the skin that would be a reason for legitimate health concerns. But luckily, so far research shows thatsunscreen nanoparticles are not absorbedbut remain on the surface of the skin or in the uppermost (dead) layer of the skin. This seems to be true even if the skin is damaged, for example, sunburnt.
All in all, if you've found a Zinc Oxide sunscreen that you are happy to use every single day, that's fantastic and we suggest you stick with it. It's definitely one of the best, or probably even the best option out there for sun protection available worldwide.
Allantoin - goodie
What-it-does: soothing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
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 cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.
It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.
Bisabolol - goodie
Also-called: Alpha-Bisabolol | What-it-does: soothing
It's one of the active parts ofChamomile that contains about 30% of bisabolol. It's aclear oily fluid that is used in skincare as a nice anti-inflammatory and soothing ingredient.
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.
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
What-it-does: emollient
A super common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth. It comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy. It’s a nice ingredient that just feels good on the skin, is super well tolerated by every skin type andeasy to formulate with. No wonder it’s popular.
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.
Coco-Caprylate
What-it-does: emollient
A clear, colorless to slightlyyellowish oil that makes the skin nice and smooth (emollient), spreads easily on the skin and is marketed as agood alternative to volatile (does not absorb into the skin but rather evaporates from it) silicones like Cyclomethicone.
Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Extract - goodie
What-it-does: soothing, emollient
When it comes to sunflower and skincare, the seed oil is the common and well-known one. But according to manufacturer info, the seed extract also contains a bunch of skin goodies, including anti-inflammatory minerals, moisturizing and soothing amino acids, sugars and proteinsas well as antioxidant polyphenol derivatives.
Hydrogenated Lecithin - goodie
What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying
It's the chemically chopped up version of normal lecithin. Most often it's used to create liposomes and to coat and stabilizeother ingredients.
Iron Oxides
Also-called: Ci 77491/77492/77499 | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
A bit of a sloppy ingredient name as it covers not one butthree pigments: red, yellow and black iron oxide.
The triois invaluable for "skin-colored" makeup products (think your foundation and pressed powder) as blendingthese three shades carefully can produce almost any shade of natural-looking flesh tones.
Jojoba Esters
What-it-does: soothing, emollient, moisturizer/humectant
Jojoba-derived emollient wax esters (fatty acid + fatty alcohol) that make your skin feel nice and smooth. Chemically speaking, pure jojoba oil is also a wax ester (read our shiny explanation here), however, the ingredients called jojoba esters on the ingredient lists are made from jojoba oil and/or hydrogenated jojoba oil via interesterification.
They have multiple versions withvariable fatty acid chain lengthand the ingredient can have aliquid, a creamy, a soft or firm paste, or even a hard wax consistency. The common thing betweenall versions is, thatunlike most normal triglyceride oils, jojoba estershave superior stability, provide non-greasy emolliency and are readily absorbed into 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.
Methylpropanediol
What-it-does: solvent
It's a type of glycol that - according to the manufacturer - is an extremely good replacement for other glycols like propylene or butylene glycol. Its main job is to be a solvent, but it has also very good antimicrobial properties andacts as a true preservative booster. Also helps with skin hydration without stickiness or tacky feel.
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 >>
Nylon-12
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
Anodorless, slightly yellowish powder that's used as apolymer microsphere (a tiny little ball from repeated subunits). It gives products an elegant, silky texture and better slip. It can alsoscatter light to blurfine lineswhile letting enough light through so that the skin still looks natural.
Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Phenylpropanol
What-it-does: perfuming, solvent
A naturally occurringfloral component with a delicate scent that can mask the odor of other raw materials but is not noticeable in the final product. It also has remarkable antimicrobial and preservative boosting abilities and canhelp to create "preservative-free" formulas.
Polyglyceryl-2 Dipolyhydroxystearate
What-it-does: emulsifying
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate
What-it-does: emulsifying | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 4
A natural emulsifier that brings a soft and powdery feel to the formula. It's also very gentle and is recommended for sensitive or baby skin products.
Polyglyceryl-3 Polyricinoleate
What-it-does: emulsifying, viscosity controlling
A plant based ingredient that helps water to mix with oil (aka W/O emulsifier).It's especially good for soft to low-viscosity water-in-oil emulsionswith non-greasy, pleasant skin feellike lip balms or thick body butters.
Polyglyceryl-4 Diisostearate/Polyhydroxystearate/Sebacate
What-it-does: emulsifying, emulsion stabilising, surfactant/cleansing
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Propanediol
Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant
Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often usedand often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved.
It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.
Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract - goodie
Also-called: Rosemary Leaf Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, soothing, antimicrobial/antibacterial
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, andanti-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.
Silica
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, absorbent/mattifier
A white powdery thing that's the major component of glass and sand. In cosmetics, it’s often in products that are supposed to keep your skin matte as it has great oil-absorbing abilities. It’s also used as a helper ingredient to thicken up productsorsuspendinsoluble particles.
Sodium Chloride
Also-called: Salt | What-it-does: viscosity controlling
Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. Normal, everyday table salt.
If (similar to us) you are in the weird habit of reading the label on your shower gel while taking a shower, you might have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the ingredient list. The reason for this is that salt acts as a fantastic thickener in cleansing formulas created with ionic cleansing agents(aka surfactants) such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture.
If you are into chemistry (if not, we understand, just skip this paragraph), the reason is that electrolytes (you know, the Na+ and Cl- ions) screen the electrostatic repulsion between the head groups of ionic surfactants and thus support the formation of long shaped micelles (instead of spherical ones) that entangle like spaghetti, and viola, a gel is formed. However, too much of it causes the phenomenon called "salting out", and the surfactant solution goes runny again.
Other than that, salt also works as an emulsion stabilizer inwater-in-oil emulsions, that is when water droplets are dispersed in the outer oil (or silicone) phase. And last but not least, when salt is right at the first spot of the ingredient list (and is not dissolved), the product is usually a body scrub where salt is thephysical exfoliating agent.
Sodium Hydroxide
Also-called: lye | What-it-does: buffering
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 itselfis a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totallyharmless.
Stearalkonium Hectorite
What-it-does: viscosity controlling
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate
What-it-does: chelating
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Tocopherol - goodie
Also-called: Vitamin E | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0-3 | Comedogenicity: 0-3
- Primary fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin
- Significant photoprotection against UVB rays
- Vit C + Vit E work in synergy and provide great photoprotection
- Has emollient properties
- Easy to formulate, stable and relatively inexpensive
Read all the geeky details about Tocopherol here >>
Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract - goodie
Also-called: Silver Ear Fungus Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, moisturizer/humectant
Apolysaccharide (a big sugar molecule) coming from the edible fruit bodies of the Silver Ear mushroom in China. Legend has it,imperial Concubine Yang Kuei-fei- the most beautiful woman in Chinese history - used it for her facial care.
So Tremella Extract is a big molecule (more than 1M Da molecular weight) with sugar constituents ofMannose, Xylose, and Glucuronic acid (20%). The last one is the mostimportant one, as Glucuronic acid is also a majorcomponent in hyaluronic acid(HA). Thanks to this, Tremella is claimed to be an awesome moisturizerwith slightly greater water-holding capacities thanHA itself. This is quite a big deal as HA is known for its crazy water-holding capacity (up to 1000 times its own weight).
Not only thatbut Tremella also seems to have some antioxidant effect, it's not sticky (humectants do tend to be sticky) and it leaves skin moist and smooth. No wonder,Concubine Yang Kuei-feiliked this mushroom.
Tridecyl Salicylate
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Water
Also-called: Aqua | 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.
