Ingredients in your Skincare & their significance

Have you ever wondered, what goes into that pretty looking perhaps colorful, heavenly smelling cream or lotion of yours?

Every skincare product in most part of the world, is mandatory required to declare what is it comprised of. Whether it’s the strict EU COSMOS guidelines or our very own FDA requirements, Ingredients Deck is a mandatory requirement by law on every label of the product being sold in the market.

Before we begin, a small but important fact – most creams and moisturizers are a combination of water and oil components combined together with the help of emulsifiers. Generally the ratio is always 70 – 80 % water phase and 20 – 30 % oil phase.

**while natural skincare uses exotic floral waters or hydrosols for the water phase, non-natural skincare uses bulk of plain water, for cost effectiveness!!

I have chosen  this label of a very popular brand moisturizer, incidentally even I had used it years ago!  and never even tried to look at this part of the bottle!!

WATER, GLYCERIN, NIACINAMIDE*, ISOHEXADECANE, DIMETHICONE, ISOPROPYL ISOSTEARATE, STEARYL ALCOHOL, PANTHENOL**, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE***, SODIUM ASCORBYL PHOSPHATE^, RETINYL PROPIONATE^^, CAMELLIA SINENSIS LEAF EXTRACT^*, BHT^**, C13-14 ISOPARAFFIN, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, DIMETHICONOL, LAURETH-7, CETEARYL GLUCOSIDE, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, STEARIC ACID, PALMITIC ACID, CETYL ALCOHOL, BEHENYL ALCOHOL, DISODIUM EDTA, POLYACRYLAMIDE, PEG-100 STEARATE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE, 1,2-HEXANEDIOL, PHENOXYETHANOL, FRAGRANCE, YELLOW 5, RED 40

The general rule for listing ingredients, as defined by FDA or any other regulatory body is the sequence in which it is required to be mentioned – as per the quantity – in percentage!!

The first ingredient in the above label ‘water’. To decipher what would be the percentage of water in this product, we will need to check the next ingredients.

After Water is NIACINAMIDE – a water soluble ingredient.

The next one is ISOHEXADECANE - a synthetic petrochemical—which though generally considered safe, is suspected of being an environmental toxin by Environment Canada.

And then there is LAURETH-7 another synthetic compound obtained by the extensive chemical modification of Lauric Acid, a natural fatty acid, and Oxirane, according to Cosmetics Unmasked.

Niacinamide, incidentally is popular and natural ingredient and heavily trending due to its benefits.

Let’s check what would be the recommended limit for using this ingredient. This is from a Renowned supplier in the US:-

Thus we know that Niacinamide used here cannot be more than 6% and all other ingredients used thereafter would have to less than 6% essentially. Since after the Some of the ingredients mentioned in the end cannot be more than 1%.

In all probability, all ingredients after WATER would be around 25 percent only (ideal % for any moisturizer lotion’s ‘Oil phase

We can safely assume that Water consist of major part in this formulation probably more than 70 percent!!

So we are just paying for 30% ingredients most of which are low cost synthetics!!

But of course everything cannot be bad! If it’s selling well, there must be something good.

Yes there is!

Niacinamide, as mentioned has wonderful benefits, and its NATURAL

Panthenol, another wonderful ingredient is also NATURAL

Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract – is actually Green Tea extract and is NATURAL

However these form just less than 10% of the entire formulation.

** and of course there are other synthetic ingredients which might show immediate effects as wonderful but in fact does more harm than good for the health of the skin.

If we can prefer to eat fresh, natural and even organic food for our overall health, WHY NOT the same for skin health. And now its within easy reach. There are numerous wonderful natural and organic skincare products available in the market that we can switch over to.