How does someone actually read and understand a list of skincare ingredients?
Beware of exaggerated marketing claims!
When you shop for your next skincare favorite, hopefully the first thing you do is look at the ingredient list. The claims of “overnight improvements,” “brighter skin in 3 days,” “skin is firmer and smoother immediately” are all extreme exaggerations. Any clinical study on cosmetic formulas takes months to observe small improvements, and those are measured as 10-20% improvements at best, which may be visible but by no means are drastic.
Focus on the first 5-7 ingredients
So let’s then look at the list of ingredients that should be provided with all skincare products (and if it is not there, you don’t want to buy it!). By FDA regulation, the ingredients should be listed in the order of dominance. That means that the first ingredient is present at the highest concentration, and the last ingredient at the lowest. The first 5-7 ingredients will compose most of the formula, while anything after that is present at concentrations around or below 1%. We suggest focusing on the first 7 ingredients when reviewing an ingredient list. If none of them look familiar, ask yourself, should I put this on my skin?! It’s not very different from how you choose your food in the grocery store, is it?
BUT purified actives can be near the end of the list!
How about actives then? Some of the potent ingredients do not need to be present in high concentrations. Do they matter? The answer is it depends. Many of the modern skincare products will contain natural ingredients, and you will see them in the “highlighted list.” They look like “moringa extract,” “japanese purple rice,” “malachite extract” (I am not kidding!). Now take a look at the list of ingredients and find them there. If they are purified active ingredients like peptides, arbutin, or vitamins, they will be at the end of the list and yes, they are important. But herbal extracts, oils and butters in the end of the list make no sense. Would 0.1% of shea butter do you any good? It is probably included to make the formula “look natural.”
Start with water + emulsifiers
True plant-derived formulations will start from “water,” or something like “aloe juice,” “witch hazel water” or “rose distillate.” It is not unusual to see emulsifiers in the top 5, as they are usually present in 5-10% concentrations.
Then add natural butters + oils
After that, you should see some natural butters and oils - shea, jojoba, olive, grapeseed, mango are all familiar names that we all can relate to. Plant extracts should be there too - they have to be listed with their common and latin names, for example “bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus) fruit extract.”
Finally add some preservatives + essential oils; but no pixie dust!
In the end of the list, you will see some preservatives (phenoxyethanol, benzyl alcohol, caprylyl glycol, salicylic acid etc) and essential oils which are normally used at less than 1%. Anything below that is just a pixie dust!
