The Glossary
124 ingredients. filtered by letter, function, or formulation.
showing 124 of 124 ingredients
What Irritates Your Lips: The Sources Most People Never Check
Persistently sore lips are usually treated as a dryness problem and met with a richer balm. Often they are not simply dry — they are being irritated by something in daily use, and the most commonly missed source is t...
Hormones & Skin Appearance: How Your Body's Chemistry Affects Your Complexion
"Your skin is a mirror of your internal chemistry. Six key hormones — estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, insulin, melatonin, and DHEA — directly shape how your complexion looks. From the glow of healthy estrogen to th...
Facial Redness After Alcohol: Why Some People Flush(and others don't)
"That red flush you get when you drink alcohol? It's caused by your liver breaking down ethanol into acetaldehyde — and whether you flush depends entirely on your genes. About 30% of people carry a mutation in the AL...
Enlarged Pores, Explained: Why You Have Them and How to Soften the Look
Few skin features get as much anxious mirror-time as pores — and few are as widely misunderstood. The truth about "enlarged" pores is more freeing than frustrating: most of what determines their size is out of your h...
Do Vitamin C, Zinc, or Iron Deficiencies Cause Dark Circles? What the Evidence Says
Scroll through enough skincare content and you'll be told your dark circles are a sign you're low on vitamin C, zinc, or iron — usually followed by a nudge toward a supplement. It's worth pausing on that, because the...
Sebaceous Filaments, Explained: What They Are (and Why They're Not Blackheads)
If you've ever peered very closely in the mirror at your nose and spotted tiny greyish dots or lines in your pores, you've met your sebaceous filaments — and probably wondered if they were blackheads you needed to at...
Carrageenan — The Gel-Forming Red Algae Extract
Carrageenan (red algae extract) is a marine-derived ingredient best known as a natural gel-former and thickener — it gives creams, gels, and serums their gel-like texture. It's also a humectant that supports the appea...
Arginine in Skincare — The Gentle Amino Acid
Arginine is an amino acid — a natural building block of proteins — used in skincare as a gentle conditioning and moisturising ingredient. It helps skin hold water, supports the appearance of a healthy barrier, and do...
Pentylene Glycol — Skincare's Quiet Multi-Tasker
Pentylene glycol is a gentle, plant-derived multi-tasking ingredient found across skincare. It's a humectant (hydration), an emollient (softening), a solvent (helping ingredients blend), and it helps keep formulas fre...
DHA (Dihydroxyacetone) — The Self-Tanning Sugar
DHA (dihydroxyacetone) is the classic self-tanning agent — the main active in most sunless tanners. It creates a temporary surface colour by reacting with the outer skin layer, develops in hours, fades in about a week...
Acetyl Tetrapeptide-2 — A Peptide, Kept Honest
Acetyl Tetrapeptide-2 is a synthetic peptide used as a conditioning ingredient in some cosmetic formulas. You'll see dramatic peptide marketing around firmness, pigmentation, even hair — but here's a plain, honest, ed...
BEMT (Tinosorb S) — Broad-Spectrum UV Filter
BEMT (Bemotrizinol, or Tinosorb S) is a next-generation broad-spectrum sunscreen filter — one of the few organic filters covering both UVA and UVB on its own. It's exceptionally photostable, helps stabilise other filt...
Calcium Carbonate in Skincare — The Quiet Mineral
Calcium carbonate is a gentle, everyday mineral — the same substance as chalk and limestone — that quietly multi-tasks in your skincare and makeup. It absorbs excess oil for a less shiny look, adds whiteness and opaci...
Colloidal Sulfur — The Traditional Purifying Mineral
Colloidal sulfur is a finely-dispersed, mineral form of sulfur used in skincare for oily and blemish-prone skin. It absorbs excess oil, offers mild exfoliation, and supports the appearance of a clearer complexion — ...
Acetyl Tetrapeptide-3 — A Hair & Lash Peptide
Acetyl Tetrapeptide-3 is a synthetic peptide found in some hair, lash, and brow cosmetic products, often in conditioning or "fortifying" formulas. Cosmetically it's associated with the appearance of fuller-looking las...
Zinc Gluconate — The Gentle Oil-Balancing Zinc
Zinc gluconate is a gentle, water-soluble form of zinc used mainly for combination, oily, and blemish-prone skin. It's astringent (refining the look of pores and texture), associated with the appearance of oil balance...
Erythrulose — The Gentle Self-Tanning Sugar
Erythrulose is a natural sugar used as a self-tanning agent, usually paired with DHA for a gentler, more even, less-orange result. It creates a temporary surface colour — not a change to your real skin tone — and off...
Biotin in Skincare — Hype vs Reality (Vitamin B7)
Biotin (vitamin B7) is a gentle, water-soluble vitamin used in skincare as a conditioning, supporting ingredient with antioxidant support. You've heard it linked to hair and nails — but that fame is mostly about dieta...
Magnesium PCA — The NMF-Family Radiance Hydrator
Magnesium PCA is a gentle humectant from the same family as the skin's own Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF). It helps skin hold water and supports the appearance of fresh, radiant, revived-looking skin — making it a...
Ensulizole — The Lightweight UVB Sunscreen Filter
Ensulizole (Phenylbenzimidazole Sulfonic Acid) is a lightweight, water-soluble UVB sunscreen filter — the kind that makes daily facial SPF feel elegant rather than greasy. It absorbs UVB rays to help protect against s...
Pyrrolidone carboxylic acid (PCA) in Skincare — Your Skin's Own Hydrator
PCA (pyrrolidone carboxylic acid) is a gentle, effective humectant that's already part of your skin's own hydration system — the Natural Moisturising Factor (NMF). Topical PCA tops up something your skin uses to hold ...
Vitamin B12 in Skincare — The Gentle Soothing Vitamin
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) is a gentle, soothing skincare ingredient, best known for calming the appearance of irritated, sensitive skin and offering antioxidant support. It also has a natural pink hue — the reason ...
Trehalose in Skincare — The Gentle "Resurrection Sugar"
Trehalose is a gentle, plant-derived sugar that works as a humectant — drawing and holding water in the skin. Nicknamed the "resurrection sugar" for helping organisms survive extreme dryness in nature, it's well-toler...
What Are Pustules? Understanding This Type of Blemish
The pustule is the blemish most people picture when they think "spot" — a bump with a visible white head. It's one of the most common blemishes there is, and understanding what it actually is (and why that white cent...
Piroctone Olamine — The Anti-Dandruff Ingredient
Piroctone olamine (octopirox) is a well-established anti-dandruff ingredient found in many shampoos and scalp products. It helps with the appearance of a flaky, oily scalp and is often chosen as a gentler alternative...
Vitamin F in Skincare — The Barrier-Loving Lipid
"Vitamin F" isn't actually a vitamin — it's a nickname for essential fatty acids (mainly linoleic and linolenic acid), often from safflower oil. They're the same lipids your skin's barrier is partly made of, which mak...
Enoxolone — Licorice's Gentle Soothing Ingredient
Enoxolone (glycyrrhetinic acid) is a gentle compound from licorice root, best known in skincare as a soothing ingredient for sensitive and reactive skin. It helps calm the appearance of redness and irritation and offe...
Allantoin — Skincare's Gentle Soothing Ingredient
Allantoin is one of skincare's gentlest, most reliable soothing ingredients. It calms the appearance of irritated, sensitive skin, supports hydration, and gently smooths rough, flaky patches — all while being exceptio...
Sensitive Skin Guide — Soothe & Build Resilience
Sensitive skin usually comes down to a compromised barrier — the layer that keeps moisture in and irritants out. The fix isn't more products, it's fewer, gentler ones. Support the barrier, avoid over-exfoliating and h...
Vitamin B6 in Skincare — The Gentle Balancing Vitamin
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine HCl) is a gentle, water-soluble vitamin used in skincare as a conditioning, supporting ingredient. It's most associated with the appearance of oil balance and radiance, making it popular for com...
Copper Sulfate in Skincare — What It Actually Is
Copper sulfate is a water-soluble copper compound — the familiar bright-blue crystals. Copper is a trace element with a long history, and various copper compounds appear in some cosmetic formulas, often in soothing "c...
Inositol in Skincare — The Gentle Carob Hydrator
Inositol is a gentle, plant-derived sugar — often from the carob tree — used in skincare as a humectant and moisturiser. Sometimes called "vitamin-like" (or vitamin B7), it helps skin attract and hold water and is ver...
Inulin — The Prebiotic Hydrator From Chicory
Inulin is a plant-derived prebiotic sugar (a natural fibre from chicory root) used in skincare as a gentle humectant. It helps skin hold water via a light surface film, supporting the appearance of hydrated skin, and ...
Argireline Explained — The Needle-Free Peptide for Lines
Argireline (acetyl hexapeptide-8) is a peptide often described as a needle-free approach to the appearance of expression lines — the ones from frowning, squinting, and smiling. Gentle, topical, and gradual, it targets...
Sulfur in Skincare — How It Helps Blemish-Prone Skin
Sulfur is one of the oldest ingredients in skincare — used for centuries to help with the appearance of blemishes. It absorbs excess oil, decongests the look of pores, and calms visible redness, gently enough for most...
Cannabidiol(CBD) in Skincare — What It Is (A Plain Explainer)
CBD (cannabidiol) is a non-psychoactive plant compound discussed internationally in skincare for soothing and antioxidant qualities. But it's also one of the most legally complex ingredients around — especially in In...
Tartaric Acid — The Gentle AHA You Haven't Heard Of
Tartaric acid is a gentle, plant-derived AHA from grapes and tamarind. It exfoliates to smooth and brighten the look of skin, with bonus antioxidant and mild hydrating qualities. Gentle for an AHA, but still an acid —...
Zinc Sulfate in Skincare — Oil Balance & Soothing
Zinc sulfate is a mineral-derived ingredient valued as a gentle astringent and oil-balancer, especially for oily and blemish-prone skin. It may help manage the appearance of excess oil and refine the look of pores, w...
Biosaccharide Gum-4 — The Gentle "Second Skin" Ingredient
Biosaccharide Gum-4 is a gentle, plant-derived sugar polymer that forms a light, breathable "second skin" film on the surface. It locks in moisture, feels soft and comfortable, and may help shield skin from everyday p...
Coenzyme Q10 — The Skin-Familiar Antioxidant
Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinone or CoQ10) is a well-loved antioxidant naturally present in skin — and declining with age. In skincare it offers antioxidant support against everyday environmental stress, plus smoothing, mois...
"Why We Don't Use Hydroquinone"
Hydroquinone is one of the most talked-about ingredients in pigmentation — famous for effectiveness, infamous for controversy. It's banned in EU cosmetics and prescription-only in the US, with documented concerns fro...
Gluconolactone (PHA) — The Gentle Skin Acid
Gluconolactone is a PHA (polyhydroxy acid) — the gentlest family of exfoliating acids. It smooths for the appearance of fresher, more radiant skin while also acting as a humectant, and its larger molecule makes it f...
What Are Papules? Understanding This Type of Blemish
If you've ever had a small, red, slightly sore bump that wasn't a whitehead or a blackhead, you've likely met a papule. It's one of the most common types of blemish — and understanding what it actually is, and why it...
Why Is Your Skin Drier on an Airplane? The Science & the Fix
That tight, dry feeling on a flight is real — cabin air is often drier than a desert, and it pulls water from your skin's surface within hours. Here's the simple science of why skin dries out on a plane, and the hydr...
What Is Dysseborrhea? Poor-Quality Sebum, Explained
We hear a lot about oily skin — skin that makes too much sebum. Far less discussed is dysseborrhea, or "poor-quality" sebum, where the composition of your skin's oil shifts out of balance and becomes thicker and grea...
Combination or Oily Skin? How to Tell the Difference
Combination and oily skin get confused all the time — but they're two different skin types, and the right routine looks different for each. The difference comes down to where the oil is: oily skin shines all over, wh...
How to Care for Combination Skin: A 5-Step Routine
Combination skin is often called the trickiest type to care for — an oily T-zone pulling one way, drier cheeks the other. The answer isn't to fight it, but to work with it, gently. Here's a simple, balanced 5-step ro...
Can Your Skin Type Change Over Time?
You finally identify your skin type — and then it starts behaving differently. So is your skin type set for life, or can it drift? The honest answer is a little of both: your underlying type is largely genetic and st...
Oily Skin: 8 Mistakes to Avoid (and What to Do Instead)
Here's the frustrating paradox of oily skin: most of the habits people use to fight the shine actually make it worse. Over-cleansing, over-exfoliating, harsh stripping products, skipping moisturiser, piling on mat...
Mature, Balanced Skin: How to Care for Skin With Established Signs of Ageing
Not all mature skin behaves the same way. Some shows clear, established signs of ageing — more visible lines, softer firmness — yet stays beautifully comfortable and balanced, with even oil and few blemishes. This sk...
