Cosmetic ingredients: how to recognize them
At first glance, most of the ingredients that appear on skin care, face and body products appear as a complex of complicated and impossible-to-pronounce scientific names. They are "strange" and distant from our daily use, which can generate a confusing effect.
Still, let's talk about the products we use on a daily basis. Some, let's think of detergents, we use them from the first months of life!
More and more people, also thanks to the spread of the clean beauty, they begin to take a concrete interest in what they put on their skin. Learning to read INCI (list of ingredients) and labels therefore becomes essential. Like all paths, approaching cosmetic awareness is a gradual process, which over time reveals all the functions of cosmetic ingredients.
Before we share the complete guide to help you read cosmetics labels, let's start from the basics.
What is a cosmetic ingredient?
An ingredient can be defined as an element of a blend or compound that contributes to the complete formula. In every recipe, whether for a dish of food or a beauty product, an ingredient is a particular element that is added, mixed or combined to make up the entire final product.
An ingredient has two roles:
1. Has a function in the formula, that is, it helps to make the product creamy, viscous, or homogeneous, and / or has a relationship with the other ingredients in the recipe, such as how they interact with each other.
2. It has a function on the skin, that is, it has therapeutic actions: it soothes irritations, gives hydration, softens etc.
The ingredients come from two sources:
1. plant ingredients are derived from plants
2. The synthetic ingredients are artificially made in a chemical laboratory
Cosmetic ingredients: what to look for on a label
On the label, the ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration. In other words, the order in which the ingredients are listed reveals how much of each ingredient is actually used in the formulation. For example, if water is indicated as the first ingredient, the percentage of water is greater than that of any other ingredient present, and the product is mainly made ... of water. Another thing to note is what is at the end of the list of ingredients: if "fragrance" is the final ingredient on the list, it is very likely that it constitutes less than 1% of the total formula.
Having an idea of how much of each ingredient is present in the formula, you begin to understand its real value.
Cosmetic ingredients: the main categories
A formula generally consists of four categories of ingredients, and each category has a particular function within the formula.
1. The highest percentage of the formula is represented by the basic ingredients or constituents. They usually represent 65-80% of the total formula.
2. Below we find the active or supporting ingredients. These ingredients often provide formulation support actions:
- Therapeutic actions, such as the anti-inflammatory or emollient effect (these ingredients are usually easy to identify because they have names that recall the names of plants, botanical extracts or specific biological compounds such as amino acids or enzymes)
- A structural or aesthetic function, to change the structure, texture or color of the final product.
This category of ingredients generally appears after the basic ingredients and can make up 5-10% of the product.
3. After the active and supporting ingredients we find the functional ingredients, which have a very specific role within the product; for example the exfoliating, emulsifying or humectant function.
4. Listed at the end of the label, there is a category of ingredients that cosmetic chemists and formulators call additives, regulating agents or harmonizers. Their role is to combine everything, keep the product stable, give it a pleasant scent and a beautiful appearance, generally include preservatives, pH balancers, colors, aromas.
Natural products: which cosmetic ingredients to look for
Natural beauty products are those based on ingredients of plant origin and not synthetic. At the top of the INCI (list of ingredients) of natural cosmetics we find plant names such as: Shea Butter, Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Almond Oil and so on. The high position of these ingredients shows that the greatest percentage of substances present in the product comes from a plant resource. For the choice of a truly natural product it is therefore essential to pay attention to the ingredients listed on the label.
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