We explain what to look for in the ingredient list on cosmetic product bottles. Often in small print and difficult to read, the ingredient list has important information about the product contents. But you need to know your chemistry to understand it completely. We are here to help!
One of the most important parts of a cosmetic label is the ingredient list. The ingredient list is the only information you have about what is in the bottle or tube. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) specifies in its Cosmetic Labeling Requirements that the ingredients list must be easy to find at the time of purchase. It can’t be hidden, and letters must be at least 1/32 of an inch in height for small packages. Which is very small, less than a millimeter.
However, often the ingredient list is printed in small font that doesn’t contrast well with the background. Brands do this because they want to save space on the packaging or because they don’t want to draw attention to their ingredients. It may look like they are trying to hide something that they don’t want consumers to see, but that is not generally true.
The FDA says that the ingredients must be listed in order of how much is in the product, with the most common ingredient first. Very often, the first ingredient is water. If ingredients are in the product at less than 1%, they are at the bottom of the list and don’t need to be listed in order of percentage.
The names of ingredients come from a list put together in the 1970s and 1980s by the Cosmetics, Toiletries and Fragrance Association (CTFA), a cosmetic industry organization now going by the name Personal Care Products Council (PCPC). If an ingredient is not listed by the PCPC, manufacturers may apply to be included on the list. It’s also possible in that case to use a pharmaceutical or chemical name. But those options are often not very attractive to brands because the names can be complicated.
Cosmetic ingredient names on labels are known as INCI names, because they follow the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredients rules of the PCPC. These names are different from the chemical and common names of ingredients. For example, water is listed as Aqua, and vitamin E is Tocopherol. The ingredient list itself is often referred to as the INCI list.
For a cosmetic chemist, the ingredient list is the first thing to check on a product. It has a lot of hidden secrets that show what the formulator was thinking when creating the product. It’s hard to decipher without chemical training. But there are some things to be on the lookout for.
First, check out the preservatives. There may be some chemicals there that you might want to avoid. Some preservatives generate formaldehyde as a preserving mechanism. DMDM Hydantoin is a well known example as, as is quaternium-15. Preservation with formaldehyde can be very effective, but formaldehyde is carcinogenic. Nowadays only some rinse off products contain DMDM Hydantoin.
Other preservatives to avoid are parabens (methyl, propyl and butylparaben), phenoxyethanol, and methyl isothiazolinones.
Next, look for the emulsifying ingredients. Most cosmetic products are emulsions, which are mixtures of oil and water. They will separate unless an emulsifier is used.
Common emulsifiers are sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and its milder cousin sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). These ingredients are made from palm kernel oil or coconut oil by chemical synthesis. Both cause skin and eye irritation. The Eth suffix in laureth means that it is ethoxylated, which means a chemical process was used to add ethylene oxide groups to the molecules. This makes the chemical milder, but also means that it becomes contaminated with 1,4 dioxane, a possible human carcinogen according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We recommend avoiding both SLS and SLES (or any ingredients with “eth”) in skin care.
Friendlier emulsifiers that are widely used, not irritating, and not harmful are glyceryl stearate, lauryl laurate, and cetearyl alcohol, among others.
Every cosmetic emulsion has a skin-friendly oil, to seal moisture into the skin and improve the skin barrier. At Nuthatch Naturals® we use only natural oils and butters, like kokum and shea butter, avocado oil, and apricot kernel oil. There are many cosmetics that use crude oil-derived ingredients like petrolatum and mineral oil. Dimethicone (silicone oil) is another popular synthetic oil that has a unique smooth skin feel. But none of these are natural and renewable.
Finally, cosmetic emulsions have thickeners to give them a rich, creamy texture. Carbomer is commonly used but it is a synthetic plastic material. Much better is a natural thickener like starch or xanthan gum.
Have you ever noticed plant names, like grape seed extract or jojoba seed oil, on the labels of beauty products? Many cosmetics use ingredients made from plants, such as fruits, flowers, seeds, leaves, or oils. Some even include extracts from fungi, like snow mushroom (Tremella Fuciformis), which is technically not a plant but works in a similar way.
These botanical and herbal ingredients have been used since ancient times for their healing properties. They are rich in bioactive ingredients, such as antioxidants, polyphenols, and exfoliating enzymes. Antioxidants, for example, protect the skin from damage caused by free radicals, UV rays, and pollution. Often, they also contain natural moisturizers, like polysaccharides, which keep the skin hydrated.
While plant-based materials are more natural than ingredients made from petroleum or natural gas, they come with challenges. They can spoil more easily and may react with other ingredients, like acids, during production. On the skin, some botanical extracts may cause irritation or allergic reactions. Additionally, the effectiveness of plant-based ingredients can vary depending on how and where the plants were grown.
A big advantage of using plants is that they are renewable. Plants can be regrown every year, and decompose naturally, returning to the soil. In contrast, synthetic ingredients made from fossil fuels can lead to long-lasting waste, like microplastics, and release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Because of these environmental benefits, more people today prefer cosmetics with sustainable, plant-based ingredients. At Nuthatch Naturals®, we want to be as sustainable as possible for our kids’ sake, so we only use biobased (plant-based) ingredients in our products.
Photo by Gnana Prakash on Unsplash