Serums, creams, cleansers and sunscreen
Skincare ingredients, explained.
Understand what is in your serums, creams and cleansers, from humectants that attract water to the preservatives that keep a formula fresh.
Common in skincare
Niacinamide
Smooths the surface. A form of vitamin B3.
Read the article 5 sourcesGlycerin
Helps attract water. A clear, odorless liquid that can be made from plant oils or produced synthetically.
Read the article 5 sourcesSodium Hyaluronate
Helps attract water. A salt of hyaluronic acid, a substance found naturally in the skin. It is usually made by fermentation.
Read the article 6 sourcesPanthenol
Keeps skin in good condition. A form of vitamin B5, usually made in a lab.
Read the article 4 sourcesTocopherol
Protects the formula. A form of vitamin E, found naturally in vegetable oils such as sunflower and soybean oil.
Learn moreSalicylic Acid
Loosens dead skin cells, and preserves at low levels. An acid that occurs naturally in many plants and is made in a lab for cosmetics. One of the exfoliating acids.
Read the article 4 sourcesCeramide NP
Keeps skin in good condition. A ceramide, one of the fatty substances found naturally in the skin's outer layer.
Learn moreSqualane
Softens and smooths. A clear, odorless oil that can be made from olive oil, from sugarcane, or from shark liver oil.
Learn moreAscorbic Acid
Protects the formula. Vitamin C in its pure acid form.
Learn moreWhat people often keep an eye on
Fragrance
Ingredients added to give a product its scent: the label terms Parfum and Aroma, the fragrance substances EU law requires to be named, and ingredients used only as perfume.
Fragrance allergens
Fragrance substances that EU law requires to be named one by one on the label when present above a small threshold.
Drying alcohol
Ethanol under its label names: Alcohol, Alcohol Denat. and the SD Alcohol grades.
Essential oils
Scented, volatile oils distilled or pressed from plants, such as lavender, peppermint or lemon peel oil.
Exfoliating acids
Alpha, beta and poly hydroxy acids used to loosen dead skin cells, such as Glycolic, Lactic and Salicylic Acid.
Retinoids
Vitamin A and its derivatives, such as Retinol, Retinal and Retinyl Palmitate.
Chemical UV filters
Organic sunscreen filters that absorb UV light, such as Octocrylene and Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane.
Guides
How to read a cosmetic ingredient list
A cosmetic ingredient list names what is in a product, using standard names, in rough order from most to least. Read it in three passes: find the list and its names, group the names by what they do, and treat the order as a rough guide to amount. It cannot tell you exact amounts, the parts of a fragrance, or how your own skin will respond.
5 min readWhat is INCI? Cosmetic ingredient names explained
INCI names are the standard ingredient names printed on cosmetic labels. They are assigned by the International Cosmetic Ingredient Nomenclature Committee, sponsored by the Personal Care Products Council, and the EU builds its official glossary of label names on them. One ingredient can still appear under more than one name, so Aqua and Water, or CI 77891 and Titanium Dioxide, can be the same substance.
5 min readCosmetic ingredient list order: what position tells you
Cosmetic ingredients are listed from most to least: in the EU by weight at the time each is added, in the US by predominance. Two exceptions blur the picture. Ingredients below 1% may follow in any order, and colourants may go at the end in any order. So the first names are the largest, but a position is never a percentage.
5 min readWhat an ingredient scanner can and cannot tell you
Not from the list alone. An ingredient list tells you what a product contains and roughly in what order, but not how much of each ingredient there is, how pure it is, how the formula is built or how much reaches your skin. Those facts decide whether a hazard becomes a risk, and in the EU a qualified assessor weighs them before a product goes on sale.
5 min readHow to compare skincare ingredient lists
To compare two skincare ingredient lists, match the names first, then compare the first five ingredients, find the active ingredient in each and note where it sits, and compare preservatives, scent and any groups you avoid. Shared names in a similar order point to similar formulas, but without amounts the lists cannot show which product is stronger or which will suit you.
4 min readFragrance free vs unscented: what the labels mean
Fragrance free and unscented are different claims. Unscented describes a smell, and the FDA notes that an unscented product may still contain fragrance added to mask the odour of other ingredients. Fragrance free says no fragrance is present. Neither term is defined in the EU cosmetics regulation or the FDA's labelling rules, so check the list for Parfum or Fragrance, named fragrance substances and scented plant oils.
5 min readEU fragrance allergen labels: what changed in 2023
EU cosmetic labels must name certain fragrance substances individually, in addition to Parfum, when they exceed 0.001% in a leave-on product or 0.01% in a rinse-off one. Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 lengthened that list well beyond the original 24, adding 44 new entries. Products placed on the EU market from 1 August 2026 must follow it, and older stock may be sold until 31 July 2028.
Have a skincare label in front of you?
Paste its ingredient list into the checker to see each name matched and explained, or scan it with the app.