Your Guide to Understanding Skincare Ingredients Lists

Hello, my name is Praise and I have a little bit of a skincare obsession. As my Instagram bio says, i’m a ‘skincare obsessed pharmacist’.

Truth be told, I see it less as an obsession and more as an investment into my skin. Our skin is the largest organ we have and I value taking care of it as much as I do my other organs. I want to take good care of my skin because it's the only skin I'll ever have.

I consume A LOT of skincare content which means I am always getting exposed to and excited about products I haven't heard of or tried yet. There are some content creators whose opinions I trust wholeheartedly regarding product formulation however, there are situations where I will 'blind buy' a product on no one's recommendation. In these situations, I analyse the ingredients list to get a better idea of whether the product contains any ingredients my skin doesn't like or to get a better idea of what kind of results the product might deliver.

FUN FACT: there is a system that brands are recommended to align their product ingredients list to – the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients or INCI. the need for uniformity in cosmetic ingredient nomenclature is recognised worldwide as a way to allow consumers and authorities to be able to identify all the cosmetic ingredients in their products. "Cosmetic ingredients can be identified by a single name regardless of the origin of the product & ingredients sourced by manufacturers. The INCI name for each cosmetic ingredient also eliminates the possibility of false or incorrect ingredient names that consumers, manufacturer's, suppliers, scientists, skincare & beauty specialists can refer to & readily identify the use of multiple names that are often used when referring to cosmetic ingredients."

Active Ingredient Concentrations

To start with, just because a serum contains a certain active doesn't mean it'll deliver. Too little of something is useless. In an age where consumers are becoming more conscious of the science behind skincare, some brands are opting to slap an active onto their product labels even though the concentration of said active in the formulation is negligible. For example, a serum containing 15% vitamin c [in forms such as l-ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbyl phosphate and ascorbyl palmitate to name a few] will be brightening and plumping and skin refining but 1% of that same ingredient will do almost nothing. Both products contain vitamin c but only one of them will deliver. Now, if the product tells you outright the percentage of an active in it, then there's no need to investigate. For most products, however, especially the ones containing multiple actives, the brands don't tell you outright percentages and you have to figure that out yourself. The easiest way to do that is by the order of ingredients. On product labels, ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration. The ingredients that make up the bulk of the formula go first and those that are just sprinkled in go last. The first few ingredients are usually the vehicle which in most cases is water. My general rule is that if the promised active isn't in the first half of the list or the first two thirds, choose something else.

Potential Irritants

Having been in the skincare game for some time, I have a pretty good idea of what ingredients my skin doesn't like. If you have known allergies to something, make sure to look for that in an ingredients list and avoid it at all costs (unless you'd like some hives and irritation). Some natural ingredients can cause sensitivity and irritation even in people without an allergy to that ingredient. I usually look out for plant extracts, fragrance/ parfum and essential oils. Not all plant extracts are made equal, while some are incredibly irritating, others are great sources of antioxidants or help smooth out your skin or have humectant properties. Now, I don't know about you but I'm not going to memorise every iteration of a plant extract and whether they're good or bad for my skin. If I see a plant extract/ oil in an ingredients list, I go online to the Paula's Choice Ingredient Dictionary and see what they've written about it. The dictionary is extensive so 9 times out of 10 they have information on the ingredient I'm querying.

Essential oils are similar to plant extracts in the sense that they're natural ingredients that many will go out of their way to find and incorporate into their routine. And like plant extracts, some essential oils are good for the skin whilst others will do more damage than I have time to explain. If you've ever been told by an Instagram influencer or YouTuber or 'wellness guru' to put essential oils into your moisturiser, please do literally anything but that. Essential oils have been gaining popularity in the last few years as the wellness industry has gained traction and a loyal but misguided following. At the same time, the desire for 'all natural' or naturally derived skincare has also boomed. Now as a pharmacist, I have many feelings about people trying to avoid 'chemicals' that we don't have the time to get into. What I will say though, is that the volatile fragrant portion of plant oils is what makes essential oils in skincare a little problematic. Even though they smell good and can add to the experience of doing your skincare routine, that doesn't mean using them is without risk. "All of the citrus oils, including lemon, lime, tangerine, grapefruit, mandarin, and bergamot, are a big problem for all skin types. Also extremely problematic are mint oils such as peppermint, wintergreen, pennyroyal, and balm mint. In a similar vein, avoid camphor oil, which is a potent irritant." Another thing the research tells us is that there isn't a 'great' essential oil for the skin. Clinically, amounts at or below 0.1% are non-irritating but most products contain more than one essential oil or far more than 0.1% of an oil. Additionally, if multiple products in your routine contain more than that amount, you're already putting yourself at risk of long-term irritation.

Parabens

Parabens as a group desperately need a new PR team as they have been the target of well-intentioned but ultimately misleading information. The cause of concern regarding parabens is research that suggested that they can alter or disrupt how some biological systems work, potentially leading to some health problems. These studies didn't take into account how parabens are used in cosmetics – concentrations of up to 100% parabens were used. In cosmetics, parabens are used in concentrations under 1% as preservatives. Essentially, these ingredients prevent the development of harmful organisms that would thrive in your products if given the chance. It is up to you whether or not you avoid parabens in your products, but make that decision with accurate information available to you. As for me, I don't avoid parabens in my skincare/ makeup – I'd like my products to stay viable until I finish them, I don't have the time, money or patients for things to expire on me.

Alcohols

There's so much information available about alcohol in skincare that it can sometimes be overwhelming. TL;DR we know that alcohol as a main ingredient in any skincare product is a problem. However, like everything else I've talked about, it's not that simple. Some alcohols can be of benefit when included in skincare. Fatty alcohols e.g. cetyl, stearyl, and cetearyl alcohol are non-irritating and have a myriad of skincare benefits. In small amounts, fatty alcohols can improve a skincare product's texture whilst also helping keep the product's ingredients stable. Less beneficial alcohols are usually listed in an ingredients list as SD alcohol, denatured alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol. These volatile alcohols dry very quickly, feel weightless and reduce the appearance of oil on the skin [you'll find these in a lot of old school acne toners]. These temporary benefits come with long term consequences such as dryness, disruption of the skin's microbiome and damaging the skin's barrier. I would recommend avoiding any product that has alcohol in the first third of the ingredients list, no matter the type. Going beyond that, learning which alcohols can be beneficial to the skin makes all the difference when considering new products.

I haven't covered everything, but I hope this information helps next time you're considering a new product. Good decision making can be really easy if you have the right information which is why I would like to make one more recommendation. The INCI decoder site. You can search up a skincare product and not only does it provide an ingredients list overview, but there is also a full explanation of those ingredients and what role they could be playing in that skincare product. It provides all the facts on one screen then leaves the decision making to you.

Of course, you and I know that you can't determine everything from an ingredient list alone. However, having some sort of metric to filter through the plethora of skincare products that seem to be coming out every day will help guide us all to making decisions that are better for not only the appearance but also the health of our skin.

read some more:

image credit: https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/ingredients-that-work-well-together

International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients | Wikipedia

How Do You Figure Out The Concentration Of An Ingredient In A Cosmetic Product? | Beautiful with Brains

This Tool Makes It Ridiculously Easy to Decode Your Skin Care | Healthline