Nacific Vitamin C

Nacific Vitamin C

Vitamin C Newpair Cream

Help the skin to keep moisture, brightens dull skin, and makes skin smooth and dewy.

Uploaded by: blingsmay on 12/17/2020

Ingredients overview

Water, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Cetearyl Alcohol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Niacinamide (20,000Ppm), Caprylic/​Capric Triglyceride, Behenyl Alcohol, Panthenol(10,000Ppm), Dimethicone/​Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, PEG-40 Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate, Mannitol, Squalane, Ceramide NP (Ceramide 3), Hydrogenated Lecithin, Stearyl Alcohol, Arachidyl Alcohol, Arginine, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Acrylates/​C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Ethylhexylglycerin, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Adenosine (400Ppm), Disodium EDTA, Ascorbic Acid(110Ppm), Ascorbyl Palmitate(90Ppm), Ci 77492, Ethylcellulose, Hippophae Rhamnoides Water (0.2Ppm), Salicylic Acid, Sodium Hyaluronate, Gluconolactone, Citric Acid, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract, Freesia Refracta Extract, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Leaf Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Monarda Didyma Leaf Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Coffea Arabica (Coffee) Seed Extract, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Centella Asiatica Extract, Limonene

Highlights

#alcohol-free

Key Ingredients

Other Ingredients

Moisturizer/humectant: Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide (20,000Ppm), Panthenol(10,000Ppm), Mannitol, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Centella Asiatica Extract

Viscosity controlling: Butylene Glycol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Dimethicone/​Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Stearyl Alcohol, Arachidyl Alcohol, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Acrylates/​C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Ethylcellulose

Skim through

Ingredient name	what-it-does	irr., com.	ID-Rating
Water	solvent
Glycerin	skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant	0, 0	superstar
Butylene Glycol	moisturizer/​humectant, solvent, viscosity controlling	0, 1
Dimethicone	emollient	0, 1
Cyclopentasiloxane	emollient, solvent
Cetearyl Alcohol	emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing	1, 2
1,2-Hexanediol	solvent
Niacinamide (20,000Ppm)	cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/​humectant		superstar
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride	emollient
Behenyl Alcohol	emollient, viscosity controlling
Panthenol(10,000Ppm)	soothing, moisturizer/​humectant	0, 0	goodie
Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer	viscosity controlling
PEG-40 Stearate	emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing
Glyceryl Stearate	emollient, emulsifying	0, 1-2
Mannitol	moisturizer/​humectant		goodie
Squalane	skin-identical ingredient, emollient	0, 1	goodie
Ceramide NP (Ceramide 3)	skin-identical ingredient		goodie
Hydrogenated Lecithin	emollient, emulsifying		goodie
Stearyl Alcohol	emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing	2, 2
Arachidyl Alcohol	emollient, viscosity controlling
Arginine	skin-identical ingredient		goodie
Microcrystalline Cellulose	viscosity controlling
Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer	viscosity controlling
Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil	perfuming		icky
Zea Mays (Corn) Starch	viscosity controlling, abrasive/​scrub
Ethylhexylglycerin	preservative
Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate	soothing, moisturizer/​humectant		goodie
Synthetic Fluorphlogopite	viscosity controlling
Adenosine (400Ppm)	cell-communicating ingredient		goodie
Disodium EDTA	chelating
Ascorbic Acid(110Ppm)	antioxidant, skin brightening, buffering		superstar
Ascorbyl Palmitate(90Ppm)	antioxidant	0, 2	icky
Ci 77492	colorant	0, 0
Ethylcellulose	viscosity controlling
Hippophae Rhamnoides Water (0.2Ppm)	perfuming
Salicylic Acid	exfoliant, anti-acne, soothing, preservative		superstar
Sodium Hyaluronate	skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant	0, 0	goodie
Gluconolactone	exfoliant, chelating		superstar
Citric Acid	buffering
Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract	antioxidant, soothing		superstar
Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower Extract	surfactant/​cleansing
Freesia Refracta Extract
Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Leaf Extract
Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract	soothing, antioxidant	0, 0	goodie
Monarda Didyma Leaf Extract
Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract	antioxidant, soothing, antimicrobial/​antibacterial		goodie
Coffea Arabica (Coffee) Seed Extract
Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract	moisturizer/​humectant		goodie
Centella Asiatica Extract	soothing, antioxidant, moisturizer/​humectant		goodie
Limonene	perfuming, solvent		icky

Nacific Vitamin C Newpair Cream

Ingredients explained

Also-called: Aqua | What-it-does: solvent

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.

Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.

One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.

• A natural moisturizer that's also in our skin
• A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
• Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
• Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits at higher concentrations up to 20-40% (around 10% is a good usability-effectiveness sweet spot)
• High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin

Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

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), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin.

It's an ingredient whose safety hasn't been questioned so far by anyone (at least not that we know about). BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it's also a food additive.

What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

Probably themost common silicone of all. It is a polymer (created from repeating subunits) molecule and has different molecular weight and thus different viscosity versions from water-light to thick liquid.

As for skincare, it makes the skin silky smooth, creates a subtle gloss and forms a protective barrier (aka occlusive). Also, works well to fill in fine lines and wrinkles and give skin a plump look (of course that is only temporary, but still, it's nice). There are also scar treatment gels out there using dimethicone as their base ingredient. It helps to soften scars and increase their elasticity.

As for hair care, it is a non-volatile silicone meaning that it stays on the hair rather than evaporates from it andsmoothes the hair like no other thing. Depending on your hair type, it can bea bit difficult to wash out and might cause some build-up (btw, this is not true to all silicones, only the non-volatile types).

A super commonly used 5 unit long, cyclic structuredsilicone that is water-thin and does not stay on the skin but evaporates from it (called volatile silicone). Similar to other silicones, it gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.

It's often combined with the non-volatile (i.e. stays on the skin) dimethicone as the two together form a water-resistant, breathable protective barrier on the skin without a negative tacky feel.

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 fatty alcohol, a mix of cetyl and stearyl alcohol, other two emollient fatty alcohols.  Though chemically speaking, it is alcohol (as in, it has an -OH group in its molecule), its properties are totally different from the properties of low molecular weight or drying alcohols such as denat. alcohol. Fatty alcohols have a long oil-soluble (and thus emollient) tail part that makes them absolutely non-drying and non-irritating and are totally ok for the skin.

A really multi-functional helper ingredient that can do several things in a skincare product: it can bring a soft and pleasant feel to the formula, it can act as a humectant and emollient, it can be a solvent for some other ingredients (for example it can help to stabilize perfumes in watery products) and it can also help to disperse pigments more evenly in makeup products. And that is still not all: it can also boost the antimicrobial activity of preservatives.

• A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
• Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
• Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
• Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
• Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis

Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >>

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.

A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type with a long oil loving chain of 22 carbon atoms) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and it also helps the oily and the watery parts to stay nicely mixed together (called emulsion stabilizing).

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 to attract water and then hold onto it. There is also research showing that panthenol can help our skin to produce more lovely lipids that are important for a strong and healthy skin barrier.

Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. fragrance, preservatives or chemical sunscreens) in the product.

Research also shows that it might be useful for wound healing as it promotes fibroblast (nice type of cells in our skin that produce skin-firming collagen) proliferation.

If that wasn't enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. A study shows that a nail treatment liquide with 2% panthenol could effectively get into the nail and significantly increase the hydration of it.

As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there. Panthenol might make your hair softer, more elastic and helps to comb your hair more easily.

A white, elastomeric silicone powder that gives a nice silky and powdery feel to the products. It also has some oil and sebum absorption capabilities.

A commonwater-loving surfactant and emulsifier that helps to keep water and oil mixed nicely together.

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 acid molecules are attached to glycerin instead of just one like here) in a pretty simple, "green" process that is similar to soap making. It's readily biodegradable.

It also occurs naturally in our body and is used as a food additive. As cosmetic chemist Colins writes it, "its safety really is beyond any doubt".

A type of sugar molecule, that has water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated.

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 (e.g. olive), and in the sebum (the oily stuff our skin produces) of the human skin. As f.c. puts it in his awesome blog post, squalane's main things are "emolliency , surface occlusion, and TEWL prevention all with extreme cosmetic elegance". In other words, it's a superb moisturizer that makes your skin nice and smooth, without being heavy or greasy.

Another advantage of squalane is that it is pretty much compatible with all skin types and skin conditions. It is excellent for acne-prone skin and safe to use even if you have fungi-related skin issues, like seborrhea or fungal acne.

The unsaturated (with double bonds) and hence less stable version of Squalane is Squalene, you can read about it here >>

One of the many types of ceramides that can be found naturally in the upper layer of the skin. Ceramides make up about 50% of the goopy stuff that's between our skin cells and play a super important role in having a healthy skin barrier and keeping the skin hydrated. It works even better when combined with its pal, Ceramide 1.

We wrote way more about ceramides at ceramide 1, so click here to know more.

It's the chemically chopped up version of normal lecithin. Most often it's used to create liposomes and to coat and stabilize other ingredients.

A handy multi-tasker, white to light yellowish oil-loving wax that works very well in oil-in-water emulsions.  It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient),stabilizes oil-water mixes and gives body to them.

Oh, and one more thing: it's a so-called fatty alcohol - the good, emollient type of alcohol that is non-drying and non-irritating. It is often mixed with fellow fatty alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, and the mixture is called Cetearyl Alcohol in the ingredient list.

A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type with a long oil loving chain of 20 carbon atoms) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and it also helps the oily and the watery parts to stay nicely mixed together (called emulsion stabilizing).

A semi-essential (infants cannot synthesize it, but adults can) amino acid that is one of the primary building blocks of hair keratin and skin collagen. It's a natural moisturizing factor, a skin hydrator and might also help to speed up wound healing.

Arginine usually has a positive charge (cationic) that makes it substantive to skin and hair (those are more negatively charged surfaces) and an excellent film former.  Thanks to the positive charge, it also creates a complex with AHAs (AHAs like to lose a hydrogen ion and be negatively charged, so the positive and the negative ions attract each other) that causes a "time-release AHA effect" and reduces the irritation associated with AHAs.

Cellulose is an important component of the cell walls of green plants and it's the most abundant natural polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) on Earth. If the polymer structure is not too big (less than 200 repeated units), cellulose becomes microcrystalline cellulose.

In skin care, it comes as a fine or less fine white powder. The less fine (bigger particle size) version is used as a gentle scrubbing agent (a nice natural, biodegradable alternative to now banned plastic polyethylene) and the ultra fine version is used as a helper ingredient that gives a super-silky, soft touch, reduces tackiness or greasiness and can also be used as a mattifying agent.

Combined with Cellulose Gum, it also works as a nice gelling agent.

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 monomers that are hydrophobic, i.e. water-hating.

This means that our molecule is part water- and part oil-loving, so it not only works as a thickener but also as an emulsion stabilizer. It is very common in gel-type formulas that also contain an oil-phase as well as in cleansers as it also works with most cleansing agents (unlike a lot of other thickeners).

Also-called: Sweet Orange Peel Oil, Citrus Sinensis Oil | What-it-does: perfuming

The essential oil coming from the rind of the orange (the sweet one). In general, the main component of citrus peel oils is limonene (83-97% for sweet orange peel), a super common fragrant ingredient that makes everything smell nice (but counts as a frequent skin sensitizer).

Other than that, citrus peel also contains the problematic compound called furanocoumarin that makes them mildly phototoxic. Orange peel contains less of it than some other citruses (like bergamot or lime), but still, be careful with it especially if it is in a product for daytime use.

A corn-derived, white to yellowish, floury powder that works as a handy helper ingredient to create nice feeling emulsions.

It gives a generally pleasant skin feel, has some mattifying effect (though rice starch is better at that), it reduces greasiness and tackiness and helps the formula to spread easily without whitening or shininess.

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.

Also, it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.

The salt form of one of the main anti-inflammatory ingredients in the licorice plant, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate. It's a yellowish powder with a nice sweet smell.

It's used mainly for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, but according to manufacturer info, it's also sebum regulating so it's a perfect ingredient for problem skin products.

Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is the synthetic version of the super commonly used mineral, Mica. The advantage of being synthetic is that it has a more consistent quality, fewer impurities and an even lower heavy metal content than Mica (not that Mica's heavy metal content is high). It is also more transparent and has improved light reflection.

The two main use cases for Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is being used neat as a superior "filler" orskin tone enhancer or it can also serve as a base for multi-layered, composite pigments such as pearl effect pigments where it is coated with one or more layers of metal oxide, most commonly titanium dioxide.

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 skin firmness and elasticity
• It helps with barrier repair and protection
• It might be even useful for the hair helping with hair thickness and hair growth

Super common little helper ingredient thathelps 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.

It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.

• Works best between a concentration of 5-20%
• Boosts the skin's own collagen production
• Fades pigmentation and brown spots
• If used under sunscreen it boosts its UV protection
• Extremely unstable and oxidizes very easily in presence of light or air
• Stable in solutions with water only if pH is less than 3.5 or in waterless formulations
• Vit E + C work in synergy and provide superb photoprotection
• Ferulic acid doubles the photoprotection effect of Vit C+E and helps to stabilize Vit C
• Potent Vit. C serums might cause a slight tingling on sensitive skin

Read all the geeky details about Ascorbic Acid here >>

Also-called: Form of Vitamin C | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2

A form of skincare superstar, vitamin C. Even though we are massive vitamin C fans,  Ascorbyl Palmitate  (AP) is our least favorite. (Btw, if you do not know what the big deal with vitamin C is then you are missing out. You must go and read our geeky details about it.)

So, AP is one of the attempts by the cosmetics industry to solve the stability issues with vitamin C while preserving its benefits,  but it seems to fall short on several things.

What's the problem?

Firstly, it's stability is only similar to that of pure ascorbic acid (AA), which means it is not really stable. A great study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology compared a bunch of vitamin C derivatives and this derivative was the only one where the study said in terms of stability that it's "similar to AA". Not really that good.

Second, a study that examined the skin absorption of vitamin C found that ascorbyl palmitate did not increase the skin levels of AA. This does not mean that ascorbyl palmitate cannot penetrate the skin (because it can, it's oil soluble and the skin likes to absorb oil soluble things) but this means that it's questionable if ascorbyl palmitate can be converted into pure Vit C in the skin. Even if it can be converted, the palmitate part of the molecule is more than the half of it, so the efficacy will not be good and we have never seen a serum that contains a decent (and proudly disclosed) amount of AP.  We are highly skeptical what effect a tiny amount of AP has in a formula.

Third, another study that wanted to examine the antioxidant properties of AP was surprised to find that even though AP does have nice antioxidant properties;following UVB radiation (the same one that comes from the sun) it also promotes lipid peroxidation and cytotoxicity. It was only an in-vitro study meaning that it was done on cell cultures and not on real people, but still, this also does not support the use of AP too much.

The only good thing we can write about Ascorbyl Palmitate is that there is an in-vitro (made in the lab, not on real people) study showing that it might be able toboost collagen production.

Regarding the skin-brightening properties of pure vitamin C, this is another magic property AP does not have, or at least there is no data, not even in-vitro, about it.

Overall, Ascorbyl Palmitate is our least favorite vitamin C derivative. It is there in lots of products in tiny amounts (honestly, we do not really understand why), however, we do not know about any vitamin C serum featuring AP in high amounts. That is probably no coincidence. If you are into vitamin C, you can take a look at more promising derivatives here.

Also-called: Iron Oxide Yellow | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Yellow Iron Oxide is the super common inorganic (as in no carbon atom in the molecule) pigment that gives the yellow tones in your foundation. Blended with red and black iron oxides, it is essential in all "flesh-toned" makeup products.

Chemically speaking, it is hydrated iron III oxide and depending on the conditions of manufacture, it can range from a light lemon to an orange-yellow shade.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Sea Buckthorn Water | What-it-does: perfuming

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

• It's one of the gold standard ingredients for treating problem skin
• It can exfoliate skin both on the surface and in the pores
• It's a potent anti-inflammatory agent
• It's more effective for treating blackheads than acne
• For acne combine it with antibacterial agents like benzoyl peroxide or azelaic acid

Read all the geeky details about Salicylic Acid here >>

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 hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.

As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephen writes on reddit  "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".

In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. (We also checked Prospector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight).

What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate and cheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.

If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid (including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature).

• It's a polyhydroxy acid (PHA), that is often referred to as next generation AHA
• It gently lifts off dead skin cells form the skin surface making skin smooth and even
• In the long term it provides anti-aging benefits, like increased skin thickness and decreased wrinkles (though a tad less than even more proven superstar AHAs)
• It's a great moisturizer and even helps to repair impaired skin barrier
• It's antioxidant, and does not make your skin more sensitive to the sun
• It can be used even if your skin is very sensitive, rosacea prone or if you are post cosmetic procedure

Read all the geeky details about Gluconolactone here >>

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 more smooth and fresh.

There is also some research showing that citric acid with regular use (think three months and 20% concentration) can help sun-damaged skin, increase skin thickness and some nice hydrating things called glycosaminoglycans in the skin.

But according to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid. Probably that's why citric acid is usually not used as an exfoliant but more as a helper ingredient in small amounts to adjust the pH of a formulation.

• Green tea is one of the most researched natural ingredients
• The active parts are called polyphenols, or more precisely catechins (EGCG being the most abundant and most active catechin)
• There can be huge quality differences between green tea extracts. The good ones contain 50-90% catechins (and often make the product brown and give it a distinctive smell)
• Green tea is proven to be a great antioxidant, UV protectant, anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic and antimicrobial
• Because of these awesome properties green tea is a great choice for anti-aging and also for skin diseases including rosacea, acne and atopic dermatitis

Read all the geeky details about Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract here >>

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: Freesia Extract

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Also-called: German Chamomile Flower Extract | What-it-does: soothing, antioxidant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Chamomile probably needs no introduction as it's one of the most widely used medicinal herbs. You probably drink it regularly as a nice, calming cup of tea and it's also a regular on skincare ingredient lists.

Cosmetic companies use it mainly for its anti-inflammatory properties. It contains the terpenoids chamazulene and bisabolol both of which show great anti-inflammatory action in animal studies. On top of that chamomile also has some antioxidant activity (thanks to some other active ingredients called matricine, apigenin and luteolin).

Though chamomile is usually a goodie for the skin, it's also not uncommon to have an allergic reaction to it.

Also-called: Crimson beebalm, Scarlet beebalm, Bergamot

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

The extract coming from the lovely herb, rosemary. It contains lots of chemicals, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, and diterpenes. Its main active is rosmarinic acid, a potent antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. It has also anti-bacterial, astringent and toning properties.

The leaves contain a small amount of essential oil (1-2%) with fragrant components, so if you are allergic to fragrance, it might be better to avoid it.

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Apple needs no introduction as one of the most common fruits on planet Earth. It's not only a healthy fruit snack, it's also a goodie if you put in all over your face.

It's loaded with proteins, starch, sugars, acids, vitamins and salts. The sugars (mainly fructose, glucose, sucrose) give apple fruit extract nice moisturizing and smoothing properties, while the acids (mainly malic  and gallic acid) give it mild exfoliant, skin brightening and antibacterial properties.

Centella Asiatica - or gotu kola as normal people call it  - 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 turns out it really has many active compounds with several benefits. Just for hard-core geeks, the main biologically active compounds are pentacyclic triterpenoid saponins calledasiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic and madecassic acid (also called centellosides).

One of the biological activities of the centellosides is to be able to stimulate GAGs (glycosaminoglycans - polysaccharides that are part of the liquidy stuff between our skin cells), and especially hyaluronic acid synthesis in our skin. This is probably one of the reasons why Centella Asiatica Extract has nice skin moisturizing properties that was confirmed by a 25 people, four weeks study along with Centella's anti-inflammatory effects.

Madecassoside can also help in burn wound healing through increasing antioxidant activity and enhancing collagen synthesis. Asiaticoside was shown to increase antioxidant levels on rats skin when applied at 0.2%.

Centella Asiatica also often shows up in products that try to treat cellulite or striae. Of course, it cannot make a miracle but it might have some effect via regulating microcirculation and normalizing the metabolism in the cells of connective tissues.

Bottom line: Gotu Kola is a great plant ingredient with proven wound healing, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Nice to spot on any ingredient list.

A supercommon 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 skin. Oxidized limonene can cause allergic contact dermatitis and counts as a frequent skin sensitizer.

Limonene's nr1 function is definitely being a fragrance component, but there are several studies showing that it's also a penetration enhancer, mainly for oil-loving components.

All in all, limonene has some pros and cons, but - especially if your skin is sensitive - the cons probably outweigh the pros.

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Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more]

A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more]

An often used glycol that works as a solvent, humectant, penetration enhancer and also gives a good slip to the products. [more]

A very common silicone that gives both skin and hair a silky smooth feel. It also forms a protective barrier on the skin and fills in fine lines. Also used for scar treatment. [more]

It's a super commonly used water-thin volatile silicone that gives skin and hair a silky, smooth feel.  [more]

A super common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams. [more]

A multi-functional helper ingredient that acts as a humectant and emollient. It's also a solvent and can boost the effectiveness of preservatives. [more]

A multi-functional skincare superstar that has clinically proven anti-aging, skin lightening, anti-inflammatory and barrier repair properties. [more]

A very common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth. Comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it's light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy. [more]

A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and stabilize emulsions. [more]

Pro-Vitamin B5 is a goodie that moisturises the skin, has anti-inflammatory, skin protecting and wound healing properties. [more]

A white, elastomeric silicone powder that gives a nice silky and powdery feel to the products. [more]

A common water-loving surfactant and emulsifier that helps to keep water and oil mixed nicely together.

Waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth. [more]

A type of sugar molecule, that has water-binding properties and helps to keep your skin hydrated.  [more]

An emollient and natural moisturizer that can be found also in the sebum (oily stuff our skin produces). It leaves a nice non-greasy, non-heavy feeling on the skin. [more]

Ceramides make up 50% of the goopy stuff that's between our skin cells and play a super important role in having a healthy skin barrier and keeping the skin hydrated.  [more]

It's the chemically chopped up version of normal lecithin. Most often it's used to create liposomes and to coat and stabilize some other ingredient.

A handy multi-tasker, white to light yellowish oil-loving wax that works very well in oil-in-water emulsions.  It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient),  stabilizes oil-water mixes and gives body to them.Oh, and one more thing: [more]

A fatty alcohol (the non-drying type with a long oil loving chain of 20 carbon atoms) that is used to increase the viscosity of the formula and it also helps the oily and the watery parts to stay nicely mixed together (called emulsion stabilizing).  [more]

An amino acid that is one of the primary building blocks of hair keratin and skin collagen. It's a natural moisturizing factor and might also help to speed up wound healing.  [more]

A smaller version of the natural, cell-wall building polymer cellulose. Mostly used as a mattifier or a helper ingredient that improves the skin feel of the formula. [more]

A common helper ingredient that stabilizes emulsions and helps to thicken up products. [more]

The essential oil coming from the rind of the orange. Its main component (83-97%) is limonene, the super common fragrant ingredient. [more]

Corn Starch that comes as a floury powder and helps to improve the skin feel of emulsions. [more]

It can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too. [more]

The salt form of one of the main anti-inflammatory ingredients in the licorice plant, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate. It's a yellowish powder with a nice sweet smell.  It's used mainly for its soothing and anti-inflammatory properties, but according to manufacturer info, it's also sebum regulating so it' [more]

Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is the synthetic version of the super commonly used mineral, Mica. The advantage of being synthetic is that it has a more consistent quality, fewer impurities and an even lower heavy metal content than Mica (not that Mica's heavy metal content is high). [more]

An important compound in our body that has a vital cell-signalling role. It is wound healing, anti-inflammatory and can help with barrier repair. [more]

Super common little 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. [more]

Pure Vitamin C. A skincare superstar that is clinically proven to boost collagen production (in 5-20% concentration), fade hyperpigmentation and boost UV protection under sunscreen. Also, it's extremely unstable and hard to formulate. [more]

An oil soluble vitamin C derivative that has mixed data about its effectiveness. [more]

CI 77492 or Iron Oxide is a common colorant with the color yellow.  [more]

One of the gold standard ingredients for treating problem skin. It can exfoliate skin both on the surface and in the pores and it's a potent anti-inflammatory agent. [more]

It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer. [more]

A next generation AHA, a so-called PHA that gently exfoliates skin without irritation. It also moisturizes and helps the skin barrier. It also has antioxidant properties. [more]

An AHA that comes from citrus fruits. It is usually used as a helper ingredient to adjust the pH of the formula. [more]

A super common fragrance ingredient found naturally in many plants including citrus peel oils, rosemary or lavender. It autoxidizes on air exposure and counts as a common skin sensitizer. [more]

Nacific Vitamin C

Source: https://incidecoder.com/products/nacific-vitamin-c-newpair-cream