Sunflower Seed Oil* - goodie
Also-called: Sunflower Oil;Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil | What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Sunflower does not need a big intro as you probably use it in the kitchen as cooking oil, or you munch on the seeds as a healthy snack or you adore its big, beautifulyellow flower during the summer - or you do all of these and probably even more. And by even more we mean putting it all overyour face as sunflower oil is one of the most commonly used plant oils in skincare.
It’s a real oldie: expressed directly from the seeds, the oil is used not for hundreds but thousands of years. According to The National Sunflower Association, there is evidencethat both the plant and its oil were used by American Indians in the area of Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC. Do the math: it's more than 5000 years – definitely an oldie.
Our intro did get pretty big after all (sorry for that), so let's get to the point finally: sunflower oil - similar to other plant oils - is a great emollient that makes the skin smooth and nice and helps to keep it hydrated. It also protects the surface of the skin and enhances the damaged or irritated skin barrier. Leslie Bauman notes in Cosmetic Dermatology that one application of sunflower oil significantly speeds up the recovery of the skin barrier within an hour and sustains the results 5 hours after using it.
It's also loaded withfatty acids(mostly linoleic (50-74%) and oleic (14-35%)). The unrefined version(be sure to use that on your skin!) is especially high in linoleic acid that is great even for acne-prone skin. Its comedogen index is 0, meaning that it's pretty much an all skin-type oil.
Truth be told, there are many great plant oils and sunflower oil is definitely one of them.
Organic Phytonutrient Blend™
This ingredient name is not according to the INCI-standard. :( What, why?!
Stone Crop Juice
Also-called: Stonecrop Extract;Sedum Sarmentosum Extract | What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Aloe Juice - goodie
Also-called: Aloe Vera;Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice | What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant
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 anti-inflammatory (among others contains salicylates, polysaccharides, magnesium lactate and C-glucosyl chromone) as well as some antibacterial components. It also helps wound healing and skin regeneration in general. All in all definitely a goodie.
Lemon Peel Extract
Also-called: Citrus Limon Peel Extract | What-it-does: emollient
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Bearberry Extract - goodie
Also-called: Bearberry, Kinnikinnick;Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi Leaf Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, skin brightening
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 contain 5-15% percent of it and might be able to help fading brown spots on the skin. Also, kinnikinnick (such a cool name :)) is an antioxidant and has some antibacterial activity.
Jasmine Flower Extract
What-it-does: perfuming
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Lavender Flower Extract
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, deodorant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract - goodie
Also-called: Calendula Extract, Marigold Extract | What-it-does: soothing, antioxidant, perfuming
The extract coming from the popular garden plant Calendula or Marigold. According to manufacturer info, it's used for many centuries for itsexceptional healing powers and is particularly remarkable in the treatment of wounds. It containsflavonoids that give the plant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Rice Extract
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Green Tea Leaf Extract - goodie
Also-called: Green Tea;Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, soothing
- 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 >>
Rosemary Leaf Extract - goodie
Also-called: Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, soothing, antimicrobial/antibacterial
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, andanti-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.
Soybean Germ Extract
What-it-does: emollient
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Chlorophyll
What-it-does: colorant
A natural, oil-soluble colorant that gives olive-green shades. It can be found in all plants thatphotosynthesizebut is commercially produced mainly from grass, alfalfa, and nettles.
Vegetable Glycerin - superstar
Also-called: Glycerol;Glycerin | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
- 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 for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
- High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>
Rosehip Oil* - goodie
Also-called: Dog-Rose Seed Oil, Rosehip Seed Oil;Rosa Canina Seed Oil | What-it-does: emollient
The oil coming from the seeds of dog-rose, a wild rose species native to Europe, northwest Africaand western Asia. It's a nice emollient, moisturizing plant oil loaded with skin-nourishing fatty acids(linoleic acid - 51%, linolenic acid - 19% and oleic acid - 20%).
If you start to dig a bit deeper into the rosehip oil topic, you will soon see that there are lots of species ofrose, and it's all a bit confusing to know what the differences and similarities between the oils of the different roses are. As far as our research can tell, here is the gist.
In skincare two major types of rosehip oil are used:
1.Rosa Rubiginosa that is a synonym forRosa Eglanteria and forRosa Mosqueta. We will call it RR from now on.
2. Rosa Canina, or RC
The oil content and composition of RR and RC is similar, but there are some differences: RR contains 8% of oil, while RC contains a bit more, 10%. However, the quality of RR oil seems to be a bit better: it contains 78% essential unsaturated fatty acids while RC contains only 71%. Also, the linoleic-oleic ratio of RR is better (3.3 vs 2.5) that might be important if your skin is acne-prone (as linoleic acid is good for acneand oleic is not).
There is one more important thing to mention: RR oil is famous for containing the miracle active, tretinoin. Though Wikipedia puts RR and RC oil under the same article called asRose hip seed oil, the referenced research about tretinoin content examines onlyRosa Rubiginosa. We looked for a research paper explicitly stating that Rosa Canina also contains tretinoin, but could not find one, so we can neither deny nor confirm it. What we could find is a paper mentioning the tocopherols (vitamin E) and carotenoids (pro-vitamin A) content of Rosa Canina oil that givesit some nice antioxidant properties.
All in all, it is a greatemollient plant oil with great fatty acids beneficial for any skin type.
Vitamin C - superstar
Also-called: Vitamin C, L-ascorbic acid;Ascorbic Acid | What-it-does: antioxidant, skin brightening, buffering
- 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 >>
Linoleic Acid - goodie
Also-called: LA, omega-6 fatty acid, 18:2 cis-9,12, Form of Vitamin F | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, emollient, surfactant/cleansing
The famousomega-6 fatty acid,the mother of allω-6 fatty acids in ourbody. It is a so-called polyunsaturated fatty acid meaning it has more than one (in this case two) double bonds and a somewhat kinky structure that makes LA and LA-rich oils a thin liquid.
It is also an essential fatty acid meaning our body cannot synthesizeit and has to take it from food. This is not hard at all as plenty of nuts (such as flax, poppy or sesame seeds) and vegetable oils (such as sunflower or safflower) are rich in LA. The hard thing seems to be eating enough omega-3-s, more specificallyeating a healthy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, but that is a topic for a what-is-good-to-eat-site and not for us.
As for linoleic acid and the skin, LA is a really important little guy found naturallyin our skin. It is the most abundant fatty acid in the epidermis and it serves as a structural precursor for important skin lipids called ceramides. Knowing this, it will not come as a surprise that Linoleic acid has a central rolein the structure and function of stratum corneum permeability, aka healthy skin barrier.LA deficiency leads to an impairedmore permeable skin barrier and the topical application of LA-rich sunflower oil can fix this issue rapidly (while oleic-rich olive oil did not have the same barrier repairing effect).
LA is not only important for dry, barrier damaged skin types but also for acne-prone skin. Research shows that problem skin haslower levels of linoleic acid (and higher levels of oleic acid) than normal skin. So LA-deficiency in the skin seems to be connected not only to an impaired skin barrier but also to acne and smearing LA all over your face might help with your problem skin. A double-blind study using a 2.5% LA gel for 4 weeks found a 25% reduction in the size ofmicrocomedones,the tiny blocked pores that can later lead to acne.
If that was not enough, we have one more thing to report about LA. It lightens hyperpigmentation (aka UVB caused sun spots) both byblocking the melanin production ofmelanocytes (the skin cells that make the pigment melanin) and by enhancingthe desquamation of melanin pigment from the upper layers of the skin.
Overall, linoleic acid is a multi-functional skin goodiewith barrier repairing, acne-reducing, and skin-lightening magic abilities. It's a nice one to spot on the ingredient list pretty muchfor any skin type.
Linolenic Acid - goodie
Also-called: alpha-Linolenic acid, ALA, omega-3 fatty acid, Form of Vitamin F | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, emollient, surfactant/cleansing, perfuming
The famous omega-3 fatty acid,the mother of all ω-3 fatty acids in our body. Next to linoleic acid, it is the other essential fatty acid that our body cannot synthesize and we have to ingest it from our food. It is also a PUFA, aka polyunsaturated fatty acid with three double bonds, a kinky chemical structure and thus a liquid consistency.
While linoleic acid is abundant in the skin, this is not the case withalpha-linolenic acid (ALA). It is not entirely clear if it is meant to be like that or if this is a consequence of not eating enough Omega-3 with the typical Western diet.
Leafy green vegetables, walnuts, flax seeds and fish oils are rich sources of ALA and if you are not eating a lot from these, supplementing with fish oil is a pretty good idea backed byresearch.It is a good idea both in terms of general health benefits as well as potentially improving inflammation-related skin issuessuch as atopic dermatitis or acne.
As for using ALA topically, we have to say that its role and effects seem to be less direct than with LA. ALA's main role in the skin appears to be modulating the immune response of the epidermis. This is probably helpful for inflammatory skin diseases but most studies examine ALA as an oralsupplement and not when applied topically. One exception, we could find, is a study that found that topically applied ALA has nice spot-fading abilities.
To be honest, it seems to us that oral supplementation of ALA is more important than smearing it all over your face. However, that is not to say that topical ALA is a bad thing, it is a good thing. It is a skin-identical ingredient, it is probably moisturizing and anti-inflammatorybut its topical effects are less established than that of fellow omega fatty acid, linoleic acid.
Neroli Flower Oil - icky
Also-called: Bitter Orange Flower Oil, Neroli Oil;Citrus Aurantium Amara Flower Oil
The essential oil coming from the flowers of bitter orange (which is the sister of the sweet orange we all know and eat). It contains several fragrance components including linalool (around 30%) and limonene (around 10%) and has a lovely sweet smell.
As it's an essential oil with lots of fragrant components,be careful with it if your skin is sensitive.
Rosemary Leaf Extract - goodie
Also-called: Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, soothing, antimicrobial/antibacterial
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, andanti-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.
Soybean Oil - goodie
Also-called: Glycine Soja Oil | What-it-does: emollient, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 3
The emollient plant oil coming from the soybean. It is considered to be a nice, cost-effective base oil with moisturizing properties. As for its fatty acid profile, it contains 48-59% barrier-repairing linoleic acid, 17-30% nourishing oleic acid and also some (4.5-11%) potentially anti-inflammatory linolenic acid.
Calendula Flower Extract - goodie
Also-called: Calendula Extract, Marigold Extract;Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract | What-it-does: soothing, antioxidant, perfuming
The extract coming from the popular garden plant Calendula or Marigold. According to manufacturer info, it's used for many centuries for itsexceptional healing powers and is particularly remarkable in the treatment of wounds. It containsflavonoids that give the plant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Vitamin E - goodie
Also-called: Tocopherol | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0-3 | Comedogenicity: 0-3
- Primary fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin
- Significant photoprotection against UVB rays
- Vit C + Vit E work in synergy and provide great photoprotection
- Has emollient properties
- Easy to formulate, stable and relatively inexpensive
Read all the geeky details about Tocopherol here >>
Lecithin - goodie
What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying
A very common ingredient that can be found inall cell membranes. In cosmetics it's quite the multi-tasker: it's an emollient and water-binding ingredient but it's also an emulsifier and can be used for stabilization purposes. It's also often used to create liposomes.
Starch-Derived Carnosine - goodie
What-it-does: antioxidant, cell-communicating ingredient
Though its name does not reveal it,Carnosine is a peptide, a small, two amino acid (β-Ala-His) one. It is naturally present in high concentrations in muscle and brain tissues, but the one used in cosmetic products is biomimetic, meaning that it is synthetically produced in a lab to copy the natural thing.
A 2017review paper on topical peptides writes about Carnosine that it is a "well-documented aqueous antioxidant with wound healing activity".
Other than that we can write about manufacturer-done in-vitro (in the lab, not on real people) studies that show Carnosine to haveanti-glycation properties. Glycation is the not-so-nice process that happens when we bombard our body with too much sugar that results in damaged body proteins and eventually in more wrinkles.
Also, a manufacturer done in vitro study shows that carnosine might havecollagen-boosing magic power. However, the 2017research paper also mentions that even though Carnosine is a small molecule, it is water soluble and does not penetrate the skin past the top layers so we have some doubt if thecollagen-boosting works in real life. We could find one anti-aging study made on real people that mentions Carnosine, but it was combined with a bunch of other anti-aging actives so it is pretty muchimpossible to know what Carnosine did or did not.
One last thing to mention is that there is also a manufacturer done clinical study (done on real people) thatshows carnosine beingeffective against the damages caused by infrared (IR) radiation. (source)
Milk Thistle Extract - goodie
Also-called: Lady's Thistle Extract;Silybum Marianum Extract | What-it-does: antioxidant, soothing
The extract of a plant with nice purple flowers that's loaded with the phytochemical calledsilymarin. You have probably never heard of silymarin but let us tell you it's a pretty awesome ingredient.
There are quite a lot of research showing it can do all kinds of good things when taken orally: it has a proven ability to protect you from liver damage, and it also showspowerful antioxidant, anticarcinogenic,protective and regenerative properties with no more side effects than placebo.
But what about skincare? Well, there is less research about its topical usebut it definitely deserves the goodie status: it's a potent antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory agent and it's also a great UV-protectant. It's useful as a complementary treatment for rosacea, keeping the skin hydrated and it's also a supernice addition to any sunscreen product thanks to its unique UV-protecting abilities.
Vegetable Glycerin - superstar
Also-called: Glycerol;Glycerin | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
- 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 for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
- High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>
Grain Alcohol - icky
Also-called: Ethanol;Alcohol | What-it-does: antimicrobial/antibacterial, solvent, viscosity controlling, astringent
Simply alcohol refers to ethanol and it's a pretty controversial ingredient. It has many instant benefits: it's a great solvent, penetration enhancer, creates cosmetically elegant, light formulas, great astringent and antimicrobial. No wonder it's popular in toners and oily skin formulas.
The downside is that it can be very drying if it's in the first few ingredients on an ingredient list.
Some experts even think that regular exposure to alcohol damages skin barrier and causes inflammation though it's a debated opinion. If you wanna know more, we wrote a more detailed explanation about what's the deal with alcohol in skincare products at alcohol denat.(it's also alcohol, but with some additives to make sure no one drinks it).
Carrot Extract
What-it-does: perfuming
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Pumpkin Seed Oil*
What-it-does: emollient
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Sea Buckthorn Oil* - goodie
Also-called: Sea Buckthorn Berry Oil;Hippophae Rhamnoides Fruit Oil | What-it-does: antioxidant, emollient
The oil coming from the pulp of the sea buckthorn berry. It has a pretty unique fatty acid composition: 65% is a combination of the rare Omega-7, aka palmitoleic acid and the more common palmitic acid. Fatty acids give the oil nice moisturizing and skin-protecting abilities.
But that's not all the goodness ofsea buckthornoil. It contains antioxidant superstar, Vitamin E (in multiple forms), antioxidant (and orange color giving) pigments beta-carotene and lycopene, as well as skin-soothing and replenishing beta-sitosterol.
Btw, used undiluted, it will make your skin orange.
All in all, a goodie emollient plant oil.
Jojoba Seed Oil* - goodie
Also-called: Jojoba Oil;Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil | What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2
Jojoba is a drought resistant evergreen shrub native to South-western North America. It's known and grown for jojoba oil, the golden yellow liquid coming from the seeds (about 50% of the weight of the seeds will be oil).
At first glance, it seems like your average emollient plant oil: it looks like an oil and it's nourishing and moisturizing to the skin but if we dig a bit deeper, it turns out that jojoba oil is really special and unique: technically - or rather chemically - it's not an oil but awax ester (and calling it an oil is kind of sloppy).
So what the heck is a wax ester and why is that important anyway? Well, to understand what a wax ester is, you first have to know that oils are chemically triglycerides:one glycerin + three fatty acids attached to it. The fatty acids attached to the glycerin vary and thus we have many kinds of oils, but they are alltriglycerides. Mother Nature created triglycerides to be easily hydrolyzed (bebroken down to a glycerin + 3 fatty acid molecules) and oxidized (the fatty acid is broken down into small parts) - this happens basically when we eat fats or oils and our body generates energy from it.
Mother Nature also created wax esters but for a totally different purpose. Chemically, a wax ester is a fatty acid + a fatty alcohol, one long molecule. Wax esters are on the outer surface of several plant leaves to give them environmental protection. 25-30% of human sebum is also wax esters to give uspeople environmental protection.
So being a wax ester results in a couple of unique properties: First, jojoba oil is extremely stable. Like crazy stable. Even if you heat it to 370 C (698 F) for 96 hours, it does notbudge. (Many plant oils tend to go off pretty quickly). If you have some pure jojoba oil at home, you should be fine using it for years.
Second, jojoba oil is the most similar to human sebum (both being wax esters), and the two are completely miscible. Acne.org has this not fully proven theory that thanks to this, jojoba might be able to "trick" the skin into thinking it has already produced enough sebum, so it might have "skin balancing" properties for oily skin.
Third, jojoba oil moisturizes the skin through a unique dual action:on the one hand, it mixes with sebum and forms a thin, non-greasy, semi-occlusive layer; on the other hand, it absorbs into the skin through pores and hair follicles thendiffuses into the intercellular spaces of the outer layer of the skin to make it soft and supple.
On balance, the point is this: in contrast to real plant oils, wax esters were designed by Mother Nature to stay on the surface and forma protective, moisturizing barrier and jojoba oil being a wax ester is uniquely excellent at doing that.
Coenzyme Q10 - goodie
Also-called: Ubiquinone | What-it-does: antioxidant
Thanks to Nivea, Q10 is a pretty well-known ingredient and the fame and Beiersdorf's (the parent company of Nivea) obsession with it are not for no reason. It's an antioxidant found naturally in human cells where it plays a bigrole in energy production.
In fact, it's so important for energy production that if taken as an oral supplement it has a caffeine-like effectand if taken at night you will probably not sleep very well(so you should take it in the morning). Q10 supplementation is not a bad idea: it not only gives you energy but research also shows that oral Q10 increases the Q10 level of the skin (of course, it decreases with age like pretty much every good thing in the skin) and may help to reduce wrinkles. If you are not for supplements, dietary sources include fish, spinach, and nuts.
As for skincare, Q10 comes in the form of a yellow, oil-soluble powder that's shown to absorb into the upper layer of the skin and act there like an awesome antioxidant. Itnot only has preventative effects but might also be able to reduce the depth of wrinkles, though 0.3% Q10 was used in the study that counts as really high (products containing that much should be very yellow!).
Alpha Lipoic Acid - goodie
Also-called: Alpha-Lipoic Acid;Thioctic Acid | What-it-does: antioxidant
Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) is a great antioxidant that's also part of the body's natural antioxidant system. It's soluble both in water-richand lipid-rich environmentsso it's versatile and can interact with many typesof evil oxidants as well as other nice antioxidants.
ALA seems to be a great choice for topical use as studies show it can penetrate the skin rapidly where it's converted to DHLA (dihydrolipoic acid), an even more potent antioxidant molecule. A nicely designed (we mean double-blind, placebo-controlled) 12-week study from 2003 confirmed that 5% ALA cream can decreaseskin roughness and improve general signs ofphotoaging statistically significantly. A slight catch, though, is thatburning and warmth in the skin was quite a common side effect, especially in the first 4 weeks.
All in all, ALA is definitely a research-proven, great antioxidant but if your skin is sensitive higher concentrations might not be for you.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil - goodie
Also-called: Meadowfoam Oil;Limnanthes Alba Seed Oil | What-it-does: emollient
The emollient plant oil coming from the seeds of the white flowering plant called meadowfoam.Meadowfoam Oil has a unique fatty acid composition with 95% of it being long chain fatty acids (eicosenoic acid C20:1 - 61%, docosenoic acid C22:1 - 16% and docosadienoic acid C22:2 - 18%) that make the oil extraordinarily stable. It also contains antioxidant components such as vitamin E as well asphytosterols.
Apart fromMeadowfoam Oil's crazy stability, the oil is described as non-greasy, rapidly absorbed and having a similar skin feel to more often used jojoba oil. The oil is ideal for products where a soft, smooth, silky feel is required whether it be on skin or hair.
