ingredient stringlengths 3 120 | description stringlengths 0 8.3k |
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Glycerin | Glycerin doesn’t sound very glamorous but it is a real oldie but a goodie . It’s been used in cosmetics for more than 50 years and it’s a totally natural ingredient that’s also in the outermost layer of our skin (called stratum corneum - SC). It’s a so-called humectant type of moisturiser meaning that it helps our ski... |
Butylene Glycol | Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product. BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), mak... |
Squalene | Squalene is an oily liquid that originally comes from shark liver but luckily it can also be found in a couple of plant oils. Olive (0.6%), peanut (0.1%) and pumpkin (0.35%) oils contain it, though not in huge amounts. What contains more of it, is the sebum (the oily stuff) that our skin produces. About 13% of human se... |
Ceteareth-20 | A common functional ingredient that helps to keep the oil-loving and water-loving ingredients together (emulsifier), stabilizes and thickens the products. Chemically speaking, it is ethoxylated Cetearyl alcohol , meaning that some ethylene oxide is added to the fatty alcohol to increase the water-soluble part in the mo... |
Glyceryl Stearate | A super common, waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together, gives body to creams and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth . Chemically speaking, it is the attachment of a glycerin molecule to the fatty acid called stearic acid . It can be produced from most vegetable oils (in oils three fatty ... |
Glyceryl Stearate SE | An oily kind of ingredient that can magically blend with water all by itself. This is called self-emulsifying and SE in its name stands for that. The difference between "normal" Glyceryl Stearate and this guy is that the SE grade contains a small amount of water-loving soap molecules, such as sodium stearate . This inc... |
Potassium Sorbate | It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon , aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and ... |
Caprylyl Glycol | It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel . At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives , such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol . The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep y... |
Squalane | It seems to us that squalane is in fashion and there is a reason for it. Chemically speaking, it is a saturated (no double bonds) hydrocarbon (a molecule consisting only of carbon and hydrogen), meaning that it's a nice and stable oily liquid with a long shelf life. It occurs naturally in certain fish and plant oils (... |
Xanthan Gum | It's one of the most commonly used thickener s and emulsion stabilizers . If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like. Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-called rheology modifiers (helper ingredi... |
Phenoxyethanol | It’s pretty much the current IT- preservative . It’s safe and gentle , but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben. It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the ... |
Sodium Hydroxide | The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right. For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed. BTW, lye is not somethi... |
Ethoxydiglycol | A nice odorless liquid used mainly as a superior solubilizer and efficacy booster for cosmetic active ingredients such as skincare bigshot vitamin C , self-tanning active DHA or the anti-acne gold standard, benzoyl peroxide . Other than that it can also be used in hair care products where it gives a longer-lasting and ... |
Carbomer | A big molecule created from repeated subunits (a polymer of acrylic acid) that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula . It usually has to be neutralized with a base (such as sodium hydroxide ) for the thickening to occur and it creates viscous, clear gels that also feel nice and non-tacky on the skin. No ... |
Hyaluronic Acid | Hyaluronic acid (HA) and its various forms are the current IT-moisturizer s. So let’s see, what is hyaluronic acid and even more importantly what’s the big deal about it? HA is a nice big sugar molecule from repeated subunits (polymer) that can be found naturally in our body . It’s the most dominant, and most important... |
Laureth-23 | A white waxy solid that helps water and oil to mix nicely together (emulsifier). It is derived from the fatty alcohol lauryl alcohol by ethoxylating it and thus making the molecule a lot more water-soluble. In fact, Laureth-23 is mostly water-soluble acting as a solubilizer for dissolving small amounts of oily things i... |
Centella Asiatica Extract | Centella Asiatica - or sometimes also called Gotu Kola or Cica - has been used in folk medicine for hundreds of years. It’s traditionally used to improve small wounds , burns and scratches and it’s also a well known anti-inflammatory agent for eczema. Recently science has taken an interest in Gotu Kola as well and it t... |
Sodium Phytate | It’s one of those little helper ingredients that makes sure the product stays the same over time . No color change or anything like that. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. |
Triethanolamine | It’s a little helper ingredient that helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be just right. It’s very alkaline (you know the opposite of being very acidic): a 1% solution has a pH of around 10. It does not have the very best safety reputation but in general, you do not have to worry about it. What is true is t... |
Lactic Acid | Lactic acid is the second most well-known and most well researched among the AHAs . The no. 1 is glycolic acid. If you're new to AHAs we strongly suggest that you head over to our description about glycolic acid . There you will find a super detailed geeky description and many of the things we wrote are true to all AHA... |
Ascorbic Acid | If Vit C was a person it would be someone like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez or Mariah Carey. Serious performance, A-list superstar but at the same time shows some major divaish behaviour. But before we dive into it let’s just take a quick look where Vit C comes from. By the 18th century sailors noticed that if they eat plen... |
Ferulic Acid | Ferulic Acid (FA) is a goodie that can be found naturally in plant cell walls. There is a lot of it especially in the bran of grasses such as rice, wheat and oats. FA - whose main job is to be an antioxidant - owes its fame to a 2005 research that discovered that adding in 0.5% FA to a 15% Vitamin C + 1% Vitamin E solu... |
Limonene | A super common and cheap fragrance ingredient . It's in many plants, e.g. rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and it's the main component (about 50-90%) of the peel oil of citrus fruits. It does smell nice but the problem is that it oxidizes on air exposure and the resulting stuff is not good for the... |
Panthenol | An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. As you might guess from the “pro” part, it’s a precursor to vitamin B5 (whose fancy name is pantothenic acid). Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin . It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin ... |
Opuntia Ficus-Indica Extract | Prickly pear is a cactus that’s native to Mexico. It has large, sweet fruit that’s called tunas and has been used as a source of food since pre-Hispanic Mexico. Currently jams and jellies are produced from it and also a traditional Mexican alcoholic drink called colonche . But what is it doing in our skincare products?... |
Glycolic Acid | Unless you have avoided every bit of skin care info out there so far (in this case special welcome to you! :)) you must have heard of glycolic acid. Or at least about AHA s or to put it even more nice-sounding fruit acids . AHAs (alpha-hydroxy acids) stand for a whole group of ingredients and glycolic acid is one of th... |
Linalool | Linalool is a super common fragrance ingredient. It’s kind of everywhere - both in plants and in cosmetic products. It’s part of 200 natural oils including lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot, jasmine, geranium and it can be found in 90-95% of prestige perfumes on the market. The problem with linalool is, that just like li... |
Tocopherol | Vitamin E is the major fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin . As a strong antioxidant it’s an A-player in protecting the skin cells from the nasty little things called free-radicals that want to destroy the lovely collagen that makes our skin nice and firm. Because it’s fat soluble our skin just loves to absorb it (as o... |
Biosaccharide Gum-1 | Biosaccharide Gum-1 is a pretty interesting kind of sugar ingredient that is created from sorbitol via bacterial fermentation. According to the manufacturer it’s a “S.M.A.R.T.” sugar : it has Soothing, Moisturizing, Anti-aging, Restructuring and Touch properties. Let’s look at them quickly one by one. Soothing : the ma... |
Beta-Glucan | Beta-Glucan is a nice big molecule composed of many smaller sugar molecules (called polysaccharide). It’s in the cell walls of yeast, some mushrooms, seaweeds, and cereals. It’s a real goodie no matter if you eat it or put it on your face. Eating it is anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and even lowers blood cholesterol. Putt... |
Lactococcus Ferment Lysate | Lactococcus Ferment Lysate is a fairly new probiotic ingredient that is obtained from the Gram-positive bacteria, Lactococcus lactis. The lysate is a fluid substance that is produced when you break down the cell membrane, which means it contains interesting things including cytoplasm and cell wall fragments. According ... |
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract | Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) is the fancy name for common baker’s yeast. Usually different kind of yeast extracts are used in skincare for their great hydrating, and general skin conditioning properties. We could find one research paper to back this up: It has found that SC indeed increases skin moisture and had impr... |
Water | Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product. It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.... |
Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate | Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate is the fancy name of a liquidy, almost-water-like stuff that you get by fermenting and filtering yeast. According to manufacturer info it’s rich in all kinds of good-for-your-skin things : essential minerals, amino acids, beta-glucan and vitamins. It’s definitely great for skin moisturiza... |
Citronellol | Citronellol is a very common fragrance ingredient with a nice rose-like odor . In the UK, it’s actually the third most often listed perfume on the ingredient lists. It can be naturally found in geranium oil (about 30%) or rose oil (about 25%). As with all fragrance ingredients, citronellol can also cause allergic conta... |
Tocopheryl Acetate | It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here . This one is the so-called esterified version. According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life , it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin... |
Bifida Ferment Lysate | Bifida Ferment Lysate is a probiotic ingredient that’s used in one of the most iconic serums in the world, the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. Based on manufacturer info it potently protects against UV-induced damage in the skin and helps with DNA repair. An Estee Lauder patent from 2009 also talks about DNA repair... |
Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer | Though its long name does not reveal it, this polymer molecule (big molecule from repeated subunits or monomers) is a relative to the super common, water-loving thickener, Carbomer . Both of them are big molecules that contain acrylic acid units, but Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer also contains some other... |
Sodium Hyaluronate | It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF , hyaluronic acid (HA). If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here . The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to h... |
Azelaic Acid | Azelaic acid is a superstar acid with some serious magic properties. Before we list them out here's just a short intro. Azelaic acid is a so-called carboxylic acid. It’s not an AHA or BHA but a distant relative to them (all being carboxylic acids). It can be found naturally in wheat, rye, and barley. Magic property no.... |
Propylene Glycol | Propylene Glycol (PG) is a colorless liquid, whose main job, usually, is to improve the so-called freeze-thaw stability of the products. This means that it makes sure that a product doesn’t freeze or melt in low or high temperatures. To achieve this, small amounts - usually less than 2% - is used. Other functions of PG... |
Salicylic Acid | If you have ever struggled with let’s just call it “problem skin” (you know, acne, blackheads, whiteheads, large pores) then most probably you are familiar with salicylic acid (SA). Even if the name does not ring a bell, you have probably used it. Next to benzoyl peroxide, it’s the gold standard ingredient for treating... |
Parfum/Fragrance | Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. Fragrance in the US and parfum in the EU is a generic term on the ingredient list that is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average (but it can have as much as 200 components!). If you are someone who likes t... |
Palmitoyl Grapevine Shoot Extract | It’s a grape-derived ingredient that’s exclusive to French grape-centered skincare brand, Caudalie. Because of this there is not much independent info on it, but the brand claims that this is a very effective ingredient for fading brown spots . The Radiance Serum that contains it (and it does not contain any other skin... |
Cucumis Sativus Fruit Extract | Cucumber is a nice, non-irritating plant extract that’s known for it’s soothing and emollient properties. It’s not something new to put it on our face: even Cleopatra used it to “preserve her skin”. It’s commonly believed that cucumber is the answer to puffy eyes, but there is no research confirming this. What research... |
Citric Acid | Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. If these magic three letters don’t tell you anything, click here and read our detailed description on glycolic acid, the most famous AHA. So citric acid is an exfoliant , that can - just like other AHAs - gently lift off the dead skin cells of your skin and make it mo... |
Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract | We will tell you straight away that we are big green tea fans. Drinking it and slathering it all over your face are both great ideas. But as this is INCIDecoder and not a find-out-what’s-healthy-to-drink site we will now just focus on why you should put it on your face. Our first reason is that green tea does not only ... |
Rubus Idaeus Fruit Extract | Raspberry is one of the colorful berries that’s not only delicious but contains many biologically active, healthy compounds. It has polyphenols including anthocyanins and ellagitannins that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. According to skin care expert Paula Begoun , it’s antibacterial as well but due... |
Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil | If you have an interest in elephants and Africa, you have probably heard of elephants getting drunk from the fruit of the Marula tree. Though this seems to be only a legend , what is true is that the Marula fruit is really nice (and elephants do love to eat it) and there is a stone in it with several oil-rich kernels i... |
Vitis Vinifera Juice Extract | It's a liquid extract coming from grape. According to manufacturer info , it's a skin peeling agent, aka exfoliant , that contains a nice mix of AHA acids (if those magic three letters do not tell you anything, you must click here now .) About 40% of the extract is a mix of tartaric, malic , lactic , citric and gluconi... |
Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer | It's a special "cross-linked" from of IT-moisturizer, hyaluronic acid (HA). Cross-linked means that "normal" HA pieces (1-2 million Da molecular weight) are chemically bound togeather to create a big, "infinite" mesh. The special HA mesh has a remarkable water-binding capacity, 5 times more than the already crazy water... |
Propanediol | Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often used and often bad-mouthed propylene glycol . It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved. It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization , as a solvent , to boost preservative efficacy or to influence the sensory properti... |
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice | Aloe Vera is one of today’s magic plants. It does have some very nice properties indeed, though famous dermatologist Leslie Baumann warns us in her book that most of the evidence is anecdotal and the plant might be a bit overhyped. What research does confirm about Aloe is that it’s a great moisturizer and has several a... |
Aesculus Hippocastanum Seed Extract | Horse Chestnut is an often-used ingredient thanks to a couple of nice magic properties. It contains the active ingredient called escin that helps to maintain healthy blood circulation and strengthen capillaries . This makes horse chestnut useful for rosacea-prone skin and it’s also often used in toners for a fresh skin... |
Allantoin | Super common soothing ingredient . It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmetic products is produced synthetically. It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing . |
Hydroxyethylcellulose | A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautiful gel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component of the cell wall of green plants. It is compatible with most co-ingredients and gives a very good slip to the formulas. |
Buddleja Davidii Meristem Cell Culture | The extract of summer lilac or butterfly-bush in itself is a nice ingredient with some antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and the manufacturer claims that the meristem cell culture is even better. It contains among others verbascoside and isoverbascoside that have not only antioxidant and anti-inflammatory b... |
Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi Leaf Extract | Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi is a little plant with nice red berries that lives in the North and is also called bearberry or kinnikinnick. According to Wikipedia the uva-ursi part means “grape of the bear”. As for skincare bearberry is interesting because it contains the well-known skin lightening agent arbutin . The leaves... |
Polysorbate 20 | It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula. |
Ethylhexylglycerin | If you have spotted ethylhexylglycerin on the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol . They are good friends because ethylhexylglycerin can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.... |
Saccharomyces Ferment | There is not much info out there about this ingredient but the little we can know is the following: it comes from the fermentation of saccharomyces, that is a type of yeast and according to the manufacturer it's a natural deodorant . It contains a number of enzymes, which bio-converts several malodorous substances, so ... |
Glycereth-26 | It's a nice glycerin-based humectant and emollient that gives skin a smooth and luxurious feel. |
Hexylene Glycol | Similar to other glycols , it's a helper ingredient used as a solvent , or to thin out thick formulas and make them more nicely spreadable. Hexylene Glycol is also part a preservative blend named Lexgard® HPO, where it helps the effectiveness of current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol . |
Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract | Camellia Oleifera is a type of green tea plant that's mostly known for the oil that comes from its seeds. As for the leaves, it has similar properties as the better known and more often used Camellia Sinensis leaves. You can read all the geeky details about green tea and why it's awesome by clicking here , but in shor... |
Tetrasodium EDTA | A handy helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time . It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. |
Methylpropanediol | It's a type of glycol that - according to the manufacturer - is an extremely good replacement for other glycols like propylene or butylene glycol . Its main job is to be a solvent , but it has also very good antimicrobial properties and acts as a true preservative booster . Also helps with skin hydration without sticki... |
Niacinamide | Niacinamide, or as us normal people call it vitamin B3, is a real skincare superstar that has had so many studies and has so many skin benefits that we have to warn you that this "geeky details" description will not be short. Just as an intro a couple of thing about the stuff itself: it's a water-soluble vitamin that u... |
Ammonium Glycolate | A synthetic form of famous AHA, glycolic acid . Usually used as a pH adjuster to make sure the product has the right pH (usually pH 3-4) for exfoliation to do its magic. |
Hamamelis Virginiana Leaf Extract | The extract created from the leaves of the hazelnut-bush-like-magic-tree, commonly called Witch Hazel. We have gone into detail about Witch Hazel in cosmetic products here (it's astringent, soothing, antioxidant and antibacterial), but the important part to know about the leaves is that they contain much, much less act... |
Galactoarabinan | Galactoarabinan is a natural polysaccharide (a big carbohydrate molecule) that comes from the Larch trees. According to the manufacturer it can do all kinds of good in a formula: it can reduce trans-epidermal-water-loss (a fancy way of saying that it's moisturizing ), improve the appearance of skin’s superficial fine l... |
Adenosine | Adenosine is an important little compound in our body that has a vital cell-signalling role . Research on smearing it on our face is also promising and shows so far a couple of things: It can help with wound healing It’s a good anti-inflammatory agent It might even help with skin’s own collagen production and improve s... |
Glucose | A fancy name for sugar . Luckily when you put it on your skin it's good for you not like when you eat it. :) It has water-binding properties, which means that it helps to keep your skin nice and hydrated . |
Fructose | Fancy name for fruit sugar . It has nice water-binding properties and helps to keep skin hydrated . |
Dextrin | A little helper ingredient that can be a thickener, a humectant, a foam booster, an adhesion promoter and a filler. It's a blend of polysaccharides that helps to moisturize and soften the skin. |
Urea | Yes, it's the thing that can be found naturally in pee. And in the skin. It is an awesome natural moisturizing factor, aka NMF. NMFs are important components that help the skin to hold onto water and keep it plump, elastic and hydrated. Urea makes up about 7% of NMFs next to other things such as amino acids (40%), PCA ... |
Sucrose | A type fo sugar , usually refined from cane or beet sugar. On the skin, it has water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated . |
Alanine | A non-essential amino acid (a building block of skin proteins like collagen or elastin) that hydrates the skin . |
Glutamic Acid | Glutamic acid is a little molecule and non-essential (our body can synthesize it) amino acid with the important job of being a neurotransmitter in the human body meaning that it helps your nervous system work correctly. As for what it's doing in cosmetics, Glutamic acids' main thing (similar to other amino acids) is be... |
Hexyl Nicotinate | There is not too much info out there about Hexyl Nicotinate. It's an emollient, moisturizer ingredient. Also according to this study it increases blood flow. |
Biotin | Also called vitamin H , biotin is the main component of many enzymes in our body. A nice ingredient to take as a supplement for stronger nails and hair. When you do not take it as a supplement its effects are a bit more questionable but according to manufacturer info it can smooth the skin and strengthen the hair . |
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride | A super common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth . It comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy. It’s a nice ingredient that just feels good on the skin, is super well tolerated by every skin type and easy to formulate with. No wonder it’s popular. |
Corylus Avellana Seed Oil | It's the oil that comes from the edible hazelnuts. Just like many other plant oils, it's a great emollient, moisturizer , skin softener. It has a light skin feeling, spreads easily and absorbs quickly into the skin. It's rich in nourishing fatty acid, oleic containing about 66-85%. |
Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate | Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate is an emollient that leaves a light, non-oily smooth and velvet skin sensation . According to manufacturer info it's also great at dispersing and dissolving pigments and sunscreen actives. Most often you will meet this guy in light moisturizers, sunscreens or makeup products. |
Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil | The emollient plant oil that comes from almonds . Similar to other plant oils, it is loaded with skin-nourishing fatty acids ( oleic acid - 55-86% and linoleic acid 7-35%) and contains several other skin goodies such as antioxidant vitamin E and vitamin B versions. It's a nice, basic oil that is often used due to its g... |
Triticum Vulgare Germ Extract | It's a plant extract that comes from wheat germ. Used as skin- and hair conditioner and skin protectant . Contains gluten, if you are allergic. |
Sodium Benzoate | A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative . It works mainly against fungi. It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5). It’s not strong enough to be used in itself so it’s always combined with something else, often with potassium sorbate . |
Pentylene Glycol | A multi-functional, silky feeling helper ingredient that can do quite many things. It's used as an emulsion stabilizer , solvent and a broad spectrum antimicrobial . According to manufacturer info , it's also a moisturizer and helps to make the product feel great on the skin. It works synergistically with preservatives... |
Panax Ginseng Root Extract | A traditional Korean medicine used for more than 2000 years. Regarding skin care, its main thing seems to be enhancing skin nutrition and metabolism as a result of improving blood circulation . It also contains biologically active components referred to as ginseng saponins (ginsenosides) that have potent antioxidant pr... |
Retinyl Palmitate | It's an ester form of vitamin A (retinol + palmitic acid) that belongs to the "retinoid family" . The retinoid family is pretty much the royal family of skincare, with the king being the FDA-approved anti-aging ingredient tretinoin . Retinol is also a very famous member of the family, but it's like Prince George , two ... |
BHA | It's the acronym for Butylated Hydroxy Anisole. It's a synthetic antioxidant that's used as a preservative . It's a somewhat controversial ingredient : The U.S. National Institutes of Health says that BHA is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals" (... |
Polyacrylamide | It's a film-forming and thickening polymer (a large molecule composed of many repeated subunits) that comes to the formula usually as part of an emulsifier, thickener trio (with C13-14 Isoparaffin and Laureth-7 , trade named Sepigel 305). This trio is an easy-to-use liquid that helps to create nice, non-tacky gel formu... |
Ethyl Linolenate | A type of oil soluble vitamin F that is used as an emollient . Read more at ethyl oleate . |
P-Anisic Acid | Though the official function of P-Anisic Acid is masking (meaning that it helps to mask not so nice smells in the product), according to manufacturer info it is rather used as a preservative. It is a skin friendly organic acid that works against fungi . |
Cetearyl Alcohol | An extremely common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams and lotions. It also helps to stabilize oil-water mixes (emulsions), though it does not function as an emulsifier in itself. Its typical use level in most cream type formulas is 2-3%. It’s a so-called f... |
Cetyl Palmitate | A white, waxy emollient that gives "body" to skincare formulas. Comes from coconut or palm kernel oil. |
BHT | It's the acronym for Butylated Hydroxy Toluene. It's a common synthetic antioxidant that's used as a preservative. There is some controversy around BHT. It's not a new ingredient, it has been used both as a food and cosmetics additive since the 1970s. Plenty of studies tried to examine if it's a carcinogen or not. This... |
Magnesium Chloride | A kind of salt that's used as a thickener in cosmetic products. |
Laureth-7 | A not-very-interesting helper ingredient that is used as an emulsifier and/or surfactant . Comes from a coconut oil derived fatty alcohol, lauryl alcohol. |
Vinegar | The thing that you put on your salad with some olive oil. But in a more scientific sense vinegar is usually a 5% solution of acetic acid. It's used in cosmetic products to adjust pH . Larg amounts of vinegar on the skin could be irritating and drying. |
C13-14 Isoparaffin | It's a petroleum derived emollient and thickener . It often comes to the formula as part of an emulsifier, thickener trio (with Polyacrylamide and Laureth-7 ). This trio is an easy-to-use liquid that helps to create nice, non-tacky gel formulas. |
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Dataset Card for Cosmetic Ingredient Explanations Dataset (CIED)
This dataset card provides information about the Cosmetic Ingredient Explanations Dataset (CIED), a collection of English-language descriptions for cosmetic ingredients, designed for use in natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and cosmetic science research and development.
Dataset Details
Dataset Description
The CIED dataset offers detailed explanations of cosmetic ingredients, including their function, benefits, mechanisms of action (where known), and usage considerations. It aims to be a comprehensive resource for understanding the ingredients commonly found in cosmetic and personal care products. The descriptions are written in a clear and accessible style, avoiding overly technical jargon.
- Curated by: Yavuz Yilmaz
- Language(s) (NLP): en (English)
- License: CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International)
Uses
Direct Use
The CIED dataset is intended for a variety of NLP and ML applications, including:
- Developing ingredient analysis tools for cosmetic products.
- Building question answering systems to provide information about ingredients.
- Creating personalized skincare recommendation systems.
- Generating summaries of ingredient descriptions.
- Performing sentiment analysis on ingredient descriptions.
- Enabling information retrieval based on ingredient properties.
- Classifying ingredients into categories based on function or chemical structure.
- Training named entity recognition (NER) models to identify ingredients in text.
- Extracting relationships between ingredients and their effects.
- Facilitating machine translation of ingredient information.
Out-of-Scope Use
The CIED dataset is not intended for:
- Providing medical advice or diagnosis. The information in this dataset is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice.
- Making claims about the efficacy or safety of specific cosmetic products. The dataset focuses on individual ingredients, not formulated products.
Dataset Structure
The dataset is provided in JSON format. Each entry consists of the following fields:
ingredient: (string) The name of the cosmetic ingredient (typically INCI name).description: (string) A detailed explanation of the ingredient.
Example:
{
"ingredient": "Sodium Hyaluronate",
"description": "Sodium hyaluronate is the sodium salt of hyaluronic acid. Like hyaluronic acid, it is a powerful humectant that attracts and holds water, providing hydration and plumping the skin. It is often preferred in formulations due to its smaller molecular size, which may enhance penetration."
}
Dataset Creation
Curation Rationale
The CIED dataset was created to address the need for a publicly available, comprehensive, and well-structured dataset of cosmetic ingredient explanations. This resource is intended to facilitate NLP and ML research and development in the cosmetic science domain, where such data is often fragmented, proprietary, or not easily accessible.
Source Data
Data Collection and Processing
The data was collected from multiple publicly available online resources using various web scraping techniques. These resources include:
- Websites providing information on cosmetic ingredient safety and science: Ingredient names and descriptions were extracted from dedicated ingredient pages on these websites. Web scraping scripts targeted specific HTML elements containing the relevant information.
- Online dictionaries of cosmetic ingredients: Ingredient names, descriptions, and (where available) ratings or reviews were collected from these resources. The scripts navigated through the structure of these dictionaries (e.g., alphabetical listings) to extract data from individual ingredient pages.
Bias, Risks, and Limitations
- Ingredient Coverage: The dataset may not be exhaustive and might not include every cosmetic ingredient.
- Description Accuracy: While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy and clarity, the descriptions are based on information available at the time of data collection and may be subject to change as scientific understanding evolves.
- Potential Bias in Source Data: The dataset may reflect biases present in the original source materials. For example, certain sources might emphasize particular ingredients or brands.
- Subjectivity in Descriptions: While aiming for objectivity, some level of subjectivity may be present in the descriptions, particularly regarding the perceived benefits of ingredients.
Recommendations
Users should be aware of the potential biases, risks, and limitations outlined above. The CIED dataset should be used as one source of information among many, and it is recommended to consult multiple sources and, when necessary, seek expert advice from dermatologists or other qualified professionals. The dataset is intended for research and development purposes and should not be used to make definitive claims about product safety or efficacy.
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