Ingredients
How to read an INCI list, and where the order stops meaning anything
Ingredients are listed by descending concentration until one per cent, after which the formulator can arrange them freely. That…
Ayaan Kochhar
Contributing writer, Kiss Me Miss
Ayaan writes about ingredients and reads the INCI list before the front label.
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15 articles
Ingredients
Vitamin C is three different molecules wearing the same name
L-ascorbic acid, its derivatives and the marketing term are not interchangeable. The differences in stability and pH explain why…
Ingredients
Retinoids are a family, and the ladder matters more than the brand
Retinyl esters, retinol, retinaldehyde and prescription forms all end at the same receptor by different numbers of steps. That…
Ingredients
Hyaluronic acid is a sponge, and a sponge needs somewhere to keep the water
It holds a remarkable amount of water for its weight, which is only useful if the water has somewhere to stay. In dry air, an…
Ingredients
Why pH decides whether an acid does anything at all
The same percentage of the same acid behaves completely differently at pH three and pH five. Formulators know this, and labels…
Ingredients
Ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids are the mortar, not a bonus ingredient
The lipid matrix between skin cells has a rough composition, and products that mimic it are doing something structural rather than…
Ingredients
Peptides are messengers, and the marketing runs ahead of the evidence
Short chains of amino acids that signal within skin are a genuinely interesting idea. The gap between that idea and a finished…
Ingredients
Azelaic acid sits awkwardly between the shelf and the prescription pad
The same molecule appears in cosmetic products at one strength and as a prescribed medicine at another. That split tells you a lot…
Ingredients
Benzoyl peroxide bleaches towels for the same reason it works on skin
It releases oxygen, which is both the mechanism and the reason your pillowcase has pale patches. Strength matters less than most…
Ingredients
Squalane is not squalene, and the missing letter is the entire point
One is a natural component of sebum that oxidises readily. The other is its hydrogenated cousin, which is why it sits on a shelf…
Skincare
Non-comedogenic is a claim without a referee
It sounds like a standard and behaves like a slogan. Where the phrase came from, what testing sits behind it, and why your own face…
Ingredients
Alcohol on an ingredient list is two unrelated things
Cetyl alcohol and alcohol denat share a word and nothing else. One thickens and softens, the other evaporates, and confusing them…
Ingredients
Tyrosinase inhibitors interrupt a production line, and slowly
Alpha arbutin, tranexamic acid and kojic acid all interfere with the same enzyme at different points. What that means in practice…
Ingredients
Bakuchiol is promising, and promising is not the same as proven
It is sold as a gentle alternative to retinol, and it is not chemically related to one. What the supporting work actually shows…
Ingredients
Panthenol, allantoin and centella do quiet work worth understanding
The soothing shelf gets dismissed as filler because nothing on it produces a dramatic result. What each one is understood to do…