As a humectant, it helps the skin stay hydrated by pulling moisture to your skin. The low molecular weight of glycerin allows it to pull moisture into the deeper layers of your skin.

Hydrated skin improves your skin barrier; Your skin barrier helps protect against irritants and bacteria.

Glycerin has also been found to have antimicrobial and antiviral properties. Due to these properties, glycerin is often used in wound and burn treatments.

In cosmetics, glycerin is usually derived from plants such as soybean or palm. However, it can also be sourced from animals, such as tallow or animal fat.

This ingredient is organic, colorless, odorless, and non-toxic.

Glycerin is the name for this ingredient in American English. British English uses Glycerol/Glycerine.

Learn more about Glycerin

Ethylhexylglycerin

Skin Conditioning

Ethylhexylglycerin (we can't pronounce this either) is commonly used as a preservative and skin softener. It is derived from glyceryl.

You might see Ethylhexylglycerin often paired with other preservatives such as phenoxyethanol. Ethylhexylglycerin has been found to increase the effectiveness of these other preservatives.

Caprylyl Glycol

Emollient, Humectant, Skin Conditioning

Caprylyl Glycol is a humectant and emollient, meaning it attracts and preserves moisture.

It is a common ingredient in many products, especially those designed to hydrate skin. The primary benefits are retaining moisture, skin softening, and promoting a healthy skin barrier.

Though Caprylyl Glycol is an alcohol derived from fatty acids, it is not the kind that can dry out skin.

This ingredient is also used as a preservative to extend the life of products. It has slight antimicrobial properties.

Learn more about Caprylyl Glycol

Citric Acid

Buffering, Masking

Citric Acid is an AHA derived from citrus fruits (think oranges, lemons, and limes!).

As an AHA, Citric Acid removes the top layer of skin cells from the newer layer of skin underneath. This helps skin to remove dark spots and even out skin tone.

If you spot Citric Acid near the end of an ingredient list, it's likely there as a pH adjuster rather than an active ingredient.

Read more about some other popular AHA's here:

Learn more about Citric Acid

Allantoin

Skin Conditioning, Skin Protecting, Soothing

Allantoin plays a role in soothing and moisturizing the skin. Because of this, it is often added to products with strong active ingredients.

Some studies have shown this ingredient can promote wound healing with higher concentrations.

Allantoin is derived from the comfrey plant but produced synthetically for cosmetic products to ensure purity.

Learn more about Allantoin

Panthenol

Skin Conditioning

Panthenol is a common ingredient that helps hydrate and soothe the skin. It is found naturally in our skin and hair.

There are two forms of panthenol: D and L.

D-panthenol is also known as dexpanthenol. Most cosmetics use dexpanthenol or a mixture of D and L-panthenol.

Panthenol is famous due to its ability to go deeper into the skin's layers. Using this ingredient has numerous pros (and no cons):

Like hyaluronic acid, panthenol is a humectant. Humectants are able to bind and hold large amounts of water to keep skin hydrated.

This ingredient works well for wound healing. It works by increasing tissue in the wound and helps close open wounds.

Once oxidized, panthenol converts to pantothenic acid. Panthothenic acid is found in all living cells.

This ingredient is also referred to as pro-vitamin B5.

Learn more about Panthenol

Hamamelis Virginiana Extract

Antiseborrhoeic, Astringent, Skin Conditioning

Hamamelis Virginiana Extract comes from the witch hazel plant.

Unless it is specified to be non-alcohol, many types of witch hazel ingredients are distilled in denatured alcohol.

Witch Hazel has astringent, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties.

The tannin content of witch hazel constrict the appearance of pores by drying out proteins. Witch hazel water gets anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties from its catechin and gallic acid content.

However, witch hazel may be skin-sensitizing due to the tannin and fragrance compounds.

North American Indigenous groups have used witch hazel to help treat inflammation for centuries.

Learn more about Hamamelis Virginiana Extract

Glycine Soja Seed Extract

Skin Conditioning

Glycine Soja Seed Extract comes from the seed of the wild soybean plant. Wild soybean extract contains fatty acids (linoleic, oleic, linolenic), vitamin E, and antioxidants.

The wild soybean contains soyasaponins, a bioactive compound. Soyasaponins have inflammatory, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial properties. Soyasaponin has also been found to inhibit the melanin-creation process.

Two powerful components found in the wild soybean include genistein and diadzein. These two isoflavones are potent antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. Genistein in particular has been found to prevent redness caused by UV exposure.

One study from South Korea found wild soybean extract to help promote hair growth at the cellular level.

The wild soybean plant is a cousin to the famous soybean that gives us tofu, soy milk, and soy sauce.

Learn more about Glycine Soja Seed Extract

Ingredient Ratings

Here's what our community thinks of the ingredients in these products.

Dermalogy Real Fresh Foam

Balanceful Cica Cleansing Gel

When to use

Neogen Dermalogy Real Fresh Foam 117 ingredients

Torriden Balanceful Cica Cleansing Gel 42 ingredients

39 Routines

41% use in am

59% use in pm

95% use every day

When to use See routines that use it ->

87 Routines

41% use in am

59% use in pm

94% use every day

When to use See routines that use it ->

Reviews

Here's what our community thinks

Neogen Dermalogy Real Fresh Foam 117 ingredients

2.0 /5

from 3 ratings

Broke Me Out (3) Drying (3) Irritating (3)

Miri Rosanera

8 months ago

Review

Not FA safe AT ALL! This is the product that confirmed that I have FA because my skin broke out horrendously after starting it. It's a shame, because I love the packaging, it feels so fresh and non-drying on my skin.... but this thing is PACKED with ingredients that feed malassezia, all three of the variants (blueberry, green tea, and cranberry) :(

#drying

#broke me out

#irritating

Neogen

Dermalogy Real Fresh Foam

Type: Green Tea

Torriden Balanceful Cica Cleansing Gel 42 ingredients

4.3 /5

from 4 ratings

Broke Me Out (1) Drying (1) Hydrating (1)

basmah kettat

3 months ago

Review

1st use after oil cleanser and it dried my skin and burned the area around my nose and cheeks it was red and irritated
İ have sensitive/dry skin
——- update:
Since i spent money on it now i use pea size enough to remove the oil cleanser but not enough to strip my skin as i had damaged my barrier with over exfoliating since my skin gets flaky…
Maybe it will work better later when i fix this Show more

#hydrating

#light

#light scent

Torriden

Balanceful Cica Cleansing Gel

Liz Purev

5 months ago

Review

This seems to work for people with oily skin but it didn’t do well for my dry skin. I’d say it foamed up surprisingly nice and had a nice texture, unfortunately it dried me out😭😭

#drying

#broke me out

#no scent

#works well

Torriden

Balanceful Cica Cleansing Gel