How to read foundation ingredients, group by group

1. The base: water, silicone or oil

Liquid foundations are often emulsions of the less familiar kind, with drops of water held in a silicone or an oil. When researchers sorted 36 commercial liquid foundations by formula system, they classed them as water-in-silicone, water-in-oil or hybrid systems; only three were oil-in-water. The 36 were chosen because users had complained that they darkened, so they are a sample, not a survey of the market.¹

So water is not always the largest ingredient. The basic foundation the same team built for its tests had 23% water, 8% glycerin and 1% sodium chloride in its water phase, against 8.5% emulsifier and 48.7% solvent in its oil phase.¹ On a label, the base shows up as Aqua and, among the first few names, silicones such as Dimethicone or solvents such as Isododecane, which the EU's ingredient database lists as a solvent and an emollient.²

One silicone base is on its way out in the EU. Under the chemicals law REACH, cosmetics other than wash-off products may not be placed on the market with 0.1% or more of D4, D5 or D6 after 6 June 2027³, and D5 is the label name Cyclopentasiloxane.⁴ The guide to silicones in hair products explains why.

2. Emollients and film formers

Two kinds of ingredient shape how a foundation feels on skin. The EU's ingredient database defines an emollient as acting as a lubricant on the skin surface, giving it a soft and smooth appearance, and a film former as producing a continuous film on the skin, hair or nails.⁵ Dimethicone and Isododecane are both listed as emollients⁶², and Acrylates Copolymer is one of the polymers listed as film forming.⁷

The 36 commercial products in the darkening study differed in film-forming agents, pigment coatings and solvents, among other things. In the team's own tests, the more volatile the basic foundation, the more its colour darkened after application.¹

3. Pigments and fillers

The shade comes from pigments. In the study's basic foundation they were 8.8% titanium dioxide and 0.85%, 0.28% and 0.07% of CI 77492, CI 77491 and CI 77499¹, which the EU's list of permitted colourants records as yellow, red and black iron oxides.⁸ EU rules let colourants be listed in any order after all the other ingredients (Article 19(1)(g))⁸, so a white pigment can be one of the larger ingredients by weight and still be printed near the end. The guide to CI numbers in makeup explains the numbers and the "may contain" list that covers a shade range.

Pigments can be coated, so some names may be a coating rather than an ingredient with a job of its own. Titanium dioxide in sunscreens is often coated with silicones, metal oxides or organic acids⁹, and the EU entry for its nano form permits coatings such as Silica, Alumina, Stearic Acid and Dimethicone (Annex VI, entry 27a).⁸

Fillers change texture and finish. Silica is listed as absorbent, bulking and opacifying, among other functions¹⁰, and Mica as bulking, opacifying and a colourant.¹¹ Bulking means solid ingredients that dilute other solids or add volume; opacifying means making a product less transparent.⁵ The makeup ingredient list guide covers fillers in powders, lipstick and mascara.

4. UV filters, when the foundation claims an SPF

In the EU an SPF foundation is still a cosmetic. The regulation's definition of a cosmetic product includes products meant mainly to protect the external parts of the body (Article 2(1)(a)), and a cosmetic may contain only the UV filters listed in Annex VI, used within that annex's conditions (Article 14(1)(e)).⁸ A Commission recommendation on sunscreen products, still in force, opens by stating that they are cosmetic products.¹²

So the filters sit inside the ordinary ingredient list, in order of weight, with no separate heading and no percentages. Titanium Dioxide is in Annex VI as entry 27, at up to 25%, and an organic filter such as Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate as entry 12, at up to 10%.⁸

In the US, makeup marketed with sun-protection claims is both a cosmetic and a drug. Its label lists the drug ingredients alphabetically as Active Ingredients, then the cosmetic ingredients as Inactive Ingredients, in descending order of predominance.¹³

Neither list shows how much protection a foundation gives: an SPF value comes from testing the finished product.¹⁴ The filters themselves are explained in mineral vs chemical sunscreen filters and in how to find the active ingredients on a sunscreen label.

5. Preservatives, low on the list

A preservative is there to keep microorganisms from growing in the product (Article 2(1)(l)), and the EU allows only those in Annex V, within that annex's conditions (Article 14(1)(d)). Phenoxyethanol, for example, is Annex V entry 29, at up to 1%.⁸ The study's basic foundation used 0.8% preservative.¹ Ingredients under 1% may be listed in any order after the rest⁸, so a preservative's place near the end says little about how much is there.

An SPF foundation's list, annotated

Find the five groups in it: the base and emollients (Aqua, Isododecane, Dimethicone), the UV filters (Titanium Dioxide, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate), a filler (Silica), the preservative (Phenoxyethanol) and the pigments at the end. The rest help the water and oil mix, thicken the base or attract water, as their roles show. CI 77891 is titanium dioxide again, named as a colourant: the EU ingredient database says that name must be used when it colours the product¹⁵, while Titanium Dioxide is the name of its UV-filter entry.⁸

What to look for on the label

• The first few names: the base. In a water-in-oil or water-in-silicone foundation, the oil or silicone phase can outweigh the water, as it did in the study's basic formula.¹
• Annex VI names, such as Titanium Dioxide or Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate: the UV filters of a foundation that claims an SPF.⁸ Without an SPF claim, such a name may be doing another job: the EU database also lists titanium dioxide as opacifying.¹⁵
• CI numbers at the end: the pigments, in any order, so their position says nothing about amount.⁸
• (nano) after a name: the ingredient is a nanomaterial, which an EU list must state in brackets after its name (Article 19(1)(g)).⁸

The list gives no amounts, so it cannot tell you how a foundation will wear or how it suits your skin. To see what every name does, paste a list into the makeup ingredient checker.