QV Wash Versus QV Ceramides Cleanser
What's inside
What's inside
Key Ingredients
No key ingredients
Benefits
Concerns
Ingredients Side-by-side
Water
Skin ConditioningGlycerin
Humectant
Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate
CleansingSodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate
CleansingSodium Cocoyl Isethionate
Cleansing
Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer
Emulsion StabilisingLauryl Betaine
CleansingStyrene/Acrylate Crosspolymer
Aminomethyl Propanol
BufferingMethylparaben
Preservative
Ethylparaben
Preservative
Niacinamide
Smoothing
Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate
EmulsifyingEthylhexylglycerin
Skin ConditioningCeramide AP
Skin Conditioning
Ceramide NP
Skin Conditioning
Ceramide EOP
Skin Conditioning
Phytosphingosine
Skin Conditioning
Cholesterol
Emollient
Xanthan Gum
EmulsifyingCarbomer
Emulsion StabilisingWater, Glycerin, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Lauryl Betaine, Styrene/Acrylate Crosspolymer, Aminomethyl Propanol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Niacinamide, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Ceramide AP, Ceramide NP, Ceramide EOP, Phytosphingosine, Cholesterol, Xanthan Gum, Carbomer
Reviews
Ingredients Explained
These ingredients are found in both products.
Ingredients higher up in an ingredient list are typically present in a larger amount.
Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate is a surfactant and helps cleanse skin. It is created from the fatty acids of coconut oil.
Surfactants help rinse oil, dirt, and other pollutants easily from skin. It has a faint fruit-like scent.
Glycerin (or glycerol) is a compound naturally found in your skin. It's a powerhouse humectant that pulls water into the stratum corneum.
Topically, glycerin does several things at once:
Your skin makes glycerin on its own (mostly from sebaceous oil breakdown) and shuttles it to your outermost layer of skin, or your epidermis, via aquaporin-3.
Aquaporin-3 is a transporter that is essential for normal skin hydration, elasticity, and repair. Interestingly, mice lacking in AQP3 have dry and less elastic skin that can be fully corrected with glycerin.
This ingredient is non-irritating, plays well with almost every ingredient, and works across all skin types. Typical use is anywhere between 3-10% but can go up to 79% in some leave-on products.
Just know very high concentrations (>40%) can feel tacky in low humidity.
Glycerin is the name for this ingredient in American English. British English uses Glycerol/Glycerine.
Learn more about GlycerinLauryl Betaine is a cleansing ingredient. You'll most likely see it in face washes, body washes, and shampoos. It's a type of surfactant that helps water mix with oil so dirt, sweat, and sunscreen can rinse off easily.
Chemically, lauryl betaine is an amphoteric surfactant so it carries both a positive and negative charge. This helps it create a creamy foam while being less harsh than stronger detergent-type cleansers.
According to CIR, this ingredient is generally considered safe when used in cosmetics. However, like all surfactants, it can be irritating when used in high amounts of in formulas that aren't well balanced.
Learn more about Lauryl BetaineMethylparaben is a synthetic preservative and one of the most widely used in the world. It has a simple, but important job: prevent your products from going bad by stopping bacteria, yeast, and mold from growing.
Typical use levels are low, often 0.1-0.3%.
This is also one of the most heavily studied preservatives out there and major regulatory bodies have repeatedly given it the green light.
In 2023, the EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) confirmed that this ingredient is safe up to 0.4% on its own, of up to 0.8% when mixed with other paraben esters.
Here's the science behind the noise behind parabens/hormones as well:
Methylparaben shows very weak estrogen-like activity in vitro tests (more than 1,000x weaker than your body's own estradiol). In vivo (live-organism) studies don't support a meaningful endocrine-disrupting effect either.
You get a stronger estrogenic effect from eating tofu, actually.
It's also a low sensitizer and allergic reactions are uncommon; they usually happen on damage or broken skin.
There is a caveat: France has proposed to formally re-examine its endocrine classification in 2025 so the regulatory conversation isn't fully closed as of yet.
But as it stands today, this ingredient is considered safe at permitted levels.
Learn more about MethylparabenSodium cocoyl isethionate is a natural ingredient from coconut oil. It is an ultra gentle cleanser that gives a nice foam without drying the skin or impacting the skin barrier.
The amount of foam created depends on the amount of sodium cocoyl isethionate used in the product.
This ingredient also helps improve the spreadability of a product.
This ingredient hasn’t been shown in studies to feed fungal acne yeast.
Learn more about Sodium Cocoyl IsethionateWater. It's the most common cosmetic ingredient of all. You'll usually see it at the top of ingredient lists, meaning that it makes up the largest part of the product.
So why is it so popular? Water most often acts as a solvent - this means that it helps dissolve other ingredients into the formulation.
You'll also recognize water as that liquid we all need to stay alive. If you see this, drink a glass of water. Remember to stay hydrated!
Learn more about Water
