What's in my Face Cream? - Skincare Ingredients (Part 1)
Ingredient lists: Benefits, Limitations and Decoding INCI
Any cosmetic product’s ingredient is vital. From analysing a product’s ingredients list, you will certainly be able to find answers for these questions:
- Is there any component in the product you ought to avoid?
- Does the product contain what you are looking for, in terms of ingredients?
- Will the product be (at least potentially) effective for your skincare purposes?
At this point, it is also important to mention that ingredient lists have their own limitations or, in other words, information one cannot infer from analysing them. For instance, these lists do not normally include information regarding ingredients’ sources. Moreover, they can neither fully predict how your skin will react to the products nor foretell their exact effectiveness (as each and every skin is different).
Even so, it is still undoubtedly useful to know the basic principles one should consider when reading cosmetic products’ ingredient lists. These will be explored in this series of posts. First and foremost:
What should a list of ingredients look like? – INCI
INCI nomenclature should be used. INCI stands for International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients – a comprehensive list of of standardised names for cosmetic ingredients created by the Personal Care Products Council.
Here is an example of a cosmetic product’s ingredient list elaborated according to INCI:
Coconut Alkanes, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate 20.0%, Ethyl Linoleate, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Solanum Lycopersicum (Tomato) Fruit Extract, Squalane
(INCI Decoder, 2021)
For more information about INCI, visit:
In order to translate INCI ingredients to plain English, visit:
This was the first “What's in my Face Cream? - Skincare Ingredients” series post. Stay tuned as there are more to come with useful tips on how to find out what your current cosmetic products consist of and whether they are the most suitable ones for your skin!