By the end of this article I don’t expect you to know every single ingredient that is good and bad for you in a skincare product, it would just be impossible and even expert dermatologists don’t know all of them as there are hundreds of thousands out there. Instead, this article has more the purpose to educate you in how to get oriented in all those weird names, recognize if a product is as good as it says to be, what are the ingredients you should look out for and which ones to avoid, and most importantly to help you to be more of a mindful buyer.

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OK, we can move on now.

As producers and pharmaceutical companies are not really legally required to list the concentration of each ingredient (at least for the non-medicated products) to protect their recipe, it might be a little bit difficult to determine at which concentration is a given ingredient. However, there are a few tricks that can help you to figure out if an ingredient is at a higher or stronger concentration than another ingredient.

Generally speaking, the ingredients in a skincare product are listed according to their concentration: the ones that appear at the very top of the list have a higher concentration and the more you progress through the list their concentration decreases – in fact, most commonly you will find Aqua (water) at the top of the list as it is the basic, and most abundant ingredient in all products.

Try to look at the first 7 ingredients, these will give you already some valuable information about the product: if there are ingredients at a higher concentration that you want to avoid, what active ingredients are there, or if there is an ingredient you know you are sensitive or allergic to.

Most products have an ingredient called Phenoxyethanol – this is used as a stabilizer and preservative that limits bacterial growth used in cosmetics (i.e. creams, soaps, and perfumes). The European Economic Community (EEC) Cosmetics Derivative and the Cosmetics Regulation of the European Union approved phenoxyethanol in concentrations up to 1%. This is a very important piece of information because we know that this ingredient can only be used up to 1%, and we also know that ingredients are listed according to their concentration gradient. So, anything above phenoxyethanol is likely to be more than 1% and all the ingredients below phenoxyethanol are more likely to be below 1%.

So, for example, let’s suppose you want to buy a skincare product with a good exfoliative active ingredient (i.e. Salcylic Acid or Glycolic Acid), you go to the supermarket or drugstore and find these two product that have these ingredients, let’s say you are looking for a product with Salicylic Acid:

Let’s say that both products launch the same message through their names “Salicylic Acid for good exfoliation and anti-blemishes”.

But when you turn the bottles over, and you read the ingredient list you see this:

Product 1

Aqua, Methylpropanediol (hydration), Butylene Glycol (hydration), Salicylic Acid (Beta Hydroxy Acid, exfoliant), Polysorbate 20 (stabilizer), Camellia Oleifera (Green Tea) Leaf Extract (skin calming/antioxidant), Sodium Hydroxide (pH balancer), Tetrasodium EDTA (stabilizer), Phenoxyethanol (preservative).

Product 2

Aqua, Cetearyl Alcohol & Polysorbate 60 (Emulsifying Wax), Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower Oil), Vegetable Glycerin, Olea Europaea (Olive Oil), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut Oil), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot Kernel Oil), Phenoxyethanol & Ethylhexylglycerin, Stearic Acid, Salicylic Acid, Zinc Oxide, Xanthan Gum, Allantoin, Hydrolysed Silk, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Sodium Hyaluronate, Citrullus Vulgaris, Fragaria Vesca (Strawberry Fruit Extract), Vaccinium Macrocarpon.

Both Product 1 and Product 2 are very well known brands, and both have the same “Salicylic Acid” in the name of the product, and someone might even want to choose one product over the other for the loyalty they have towards a certain brand, but which one do you think it is more effective and less irritating to your skin?

Let’s take a closer look at both of them.

In Product 1, Salicylic acid is the 4th ingredient listed and it appears way before Phenoxyethabol, which means that its concentration is above 1%; in Product 2 it is the 11th of the list and it is listed after the phenoxyethanol, which tells us that it has a concentration of less than 1%.

Also, as you can see from the extensiveness of the ingredient list of both products, Product 2 has way more ingredients than Product 1, and those ingredients in excess (as you will learn later on in this article) can be extremely irritating to your skin as it has a bunch of stuff I usually run away from every time I see them listed (certain oil, fragrances, perfumes etc…).

If you haven’t figured that out yourself already, SPOILER ALERT! Product 1 is the one you might want to go for in this case.

So, which one do you think will be cheaper?

I love this example because it not only shows you how two different brands can claim to do the same thing, having the exact same ingredient, but one is way more superior than the other one once you look at the ingredient list, and it also debunks the myth that quality stuff are way more expensive than crap products. In this case Product 1 is a lot cheaper than Product 2.

I guess that by now I got your curiosity and you want to know what Product 1 is. Well, it is Paula’s Choice. Metti Link

Ingredients you might want to avoid

Some ingredients in skincare products can be really aggressive and irritating for your skin; some of them are really obvious, some others are less obvious. Since the purpose of this article is how to read a skincare product ingredient list and not “what to avoid in skincare products”, I will just concentrate on a few ingredients like fragrances and oils for now. So, here’s some ingredients you might want to be aware of and run away from should you see them on the top of the ingredient list:

Fragrances/perfume

We often associate the quality of a product by its smell, just like we do with food. I mean, if something smells so good that should be good for your skin to, right?

Wrong!

Unfortunately, most of the times what is good for the nose is not good for the skin and as pleasant as it can be to smell, fragrances and perfumes can be very bad for your skin, especially if your skin is very sensitive and delicate.

Pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies are not legally obliged to list every single scented ingredient they use to make their product appealing by making it smell nice, all they need to do is to put “Fragrance/Perfume” in the ingredient list. No matter if that contains 1 or 100 scented crap to make it smell nice.

So, should you see it within the first ingredients, put that down! Its concentration is way too high to be applied on your face or sensitive skin.

This doesn’t mean that if I find an fragrance in a skincare product I really like (because it has a lot of good ingredients) I won’t buy it , as far as it is not listed within the first few ingredients, its concentration is not crazy high, and it does not contain other irritating ingredients, I will buy it. But whenever I have the choice to avoid them, I will.

Essential Oils

Unfortunately, most of the times what is good for the nose is not good for the skin. The nice smell is often given by essential oils, which are volatile essences extracted from pretty much everything that has a smell (i.e. flowers, fruit, and seeds) and these can contain many substances – the majority of which are damaging for the skin.

Some essential oils are good for the skin, as they contain antioxidant (like caffeic acid and rosemarinic acid) and they can also help to fight the topical troublemakers of the skin, acting as antibacterial (fighting bacteria) or antimycotic (fighting fungi/yeast).

You can arguably say that there are some research out there showing that certain amounts (such as 0.1%) of these oils are non-irritating, but these studies don’t really take into account that skincare products contain more than one essential oil, probably at greater concentrations than 0.1%, and these will add up to a higher risk of irritation.

Skin is very good at hiding when it’s being irritated. So, even if you don’t see a reaction, the damage is still occurring beneath skin’s surface, cumulatively leading to problems you will see later on. Irritation is pro-aging, the opposite of what most adults want from skincare.

So the essential oils you might want to avoid and well-known to be aggressive and trouble-makers for the skin are all the citrus oils, like lemon, mandarine, tangerine, grapefruit, etc.; mint oils such as balm mint, peppermint etc.; and camphor oil. Other oils you want to avoid are: oregano oil, ylang ylang oil, sage oil, jasmine oil, ginger oil, eucalyptus oil, lemongrass oil, rosemary oil, neroli oil, and could go on and on for ages. So, my best piece of advice is to avoid all skincare products containing fragrant plant oils and extracts.

How do you do it? Simple! Try to let your nose to the shopping first (the product should’t have any nice smell), and check the ingredients to spot any fragrances/perfume/scented oils in it.

Resources

I know this might sound very overwhelming, and it is. There are thousands of ingredients you have to be aware of, good ingredients and bad ingredients that be have as such at different concentrations. This is why I think it is fair to share with you some resource to go and reference to whenever you feel stuck.

My number one suggestion is Paula’s choice dictionary. This is a very useful and powerful resource that will help you out to determine if an ingredient is bad or good.

Another great resource you can use in INCIdecoder. This will let you put in the brand of the product you want to check, and it will spit out the ingredient list, color coding them, and telling you if they are known to be allergens/irritants or if they are good ingredients for you.