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International nomenclature of cosmetic ingredients: how to know what your beauty products contain

Aqua (Water/Water), Cetrimonium Chloride, Polyquaternium-11, Amodimethicone, Polyquaternium-37, Panthenol, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Dimethicone Copolyol, Propylene Glycol, DMDM ​​Hydantoin, Parfum (Fragrance), Limonene, Polysorbate 20, methyl paraben, sebotrimonium chloride, nonxynol-10, citric acid, propylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, ppg-1, trideceth-6, benzophenpne-4, hydrolyzed wheat protein, hydrolyzed wheat starch, simondsia chinesis (jojoba seed) oil, CI 19140 (Yellow 5), CI 42090 (Blue 1) CI 16035 (Red 40).

Take a look at this list of ingredients. How much do you understand? Most people will fall off the wagon after “water”. This is an actual ingredient list from the conditioner I used a few years ago. It was at the time that I was becoming interested in knowing what was actually in the products that I used on a daily basis, and after having looked at the list of ingredients, I threw the bottle away.

This list contains many strange names that would be almost impossible to learn by heart. Fortunately, there are some ways to help understand the ingredient statement, or INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients), a little better.

  • Less is more. The first thing you should do is look at the amount of ingredients and the difficulty of the words. Simply put, the harder the ingredients are to pronounce, the more likely they are to be bad. This, of course, is not always the case – butyrospermum parkii It might not sound like the first thing you’d rub on your skin, but it’s actually shea butter, which is of course all-natural and great for your skin and hair. Still, the difficulty of the words could give you a clue as to what kind of product you have on your hands and to what extent it is chemically produced.
  • Focus on the first. To prevent others from making exact copies of their products, cosmetic companies do not have to write down the amount of each ingredient that a product contains. They still have to order the INCIs in order of quantity. So the first ingredients are the ones you should be more careful with, since the product is mainly composed of them. Typically, the first 4-8 ingredients are the largest, while the rest are included in very small amounts.
  • -cones and -oles. Even if an ingredient itself doesn’t tell you anything, sometimes part of the word can give you a clue as to what it is. For example, something that ends with -cone, is a silicone, which is mostly used in hair products and is generally considered something to avoid. If it ends in -ol it is an alcohol, if something hydrolyzes it is a protein and so on.
  • American vs. European style. When a product includes natural extracts, in the United States they also have to write the common name in English, as you can see above [simonensia chinese (jojoba seed) oil]. This makes it a bit easier, and one will understand that Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea butter) is not necessarily bad. In Europe, however, this is not necessary.
  • FGI. When you have a list of ingredients (most can be found by googling), you can search for them to see what is being said about them. Some sources I use are: “The truth about cosmetics” by Rita Stiens, Good Guide and the Skin deep database.
  • Loopholes for cosmetic companies. There are a few things that make the INCI lists difficult to read. For one thing, ingredients included with less than 1% can be added in any order you prefer. This means that if a product contains 0.0001% of a natural ingredient, say olive oil, and 0.99% of a bad ingredient, say parabens, the olive oil may show up first and the parabens later, giving the impression that the product includes more olive oil than parabens. Also, cosmetic companies are still allowed to keep some ingredients secret. Instead, they will be replaced by a seven number code, or simply “and other ingredients”. This makes it more difficult, if not impossible at all, to know what the product actually consists of.

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