What's inside
What's inside
Key Ingredients
Benefits
Concerns
Ingredients Side-by-side
Water
Skin ConditioningPotassium Cocoyl Glycinate
Surfactant
Lauryl Betaine
CleansingAcrylates Copolymer
Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate
CleansingPotassium Cocoate
Emulsifying
Sodium Chloride
MaskingGlycerin
Humectant
Hydroxyacetophenone
Antioxidant
Polyquaternium-10
Hexylene Glycol
EmulsifyingStyrene/Acrylates Copolymer
Panthenol
Skin Conditioning
Butylene Glycol
Humectant
Ethylhexylglycerin
Skin ConditioningSodium PCA
Humectant
Disodium EDTA
1,2-Hexanediol
Skin Conditioning
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice
Skin Conditioning
Citrullus Lanatus Fruit Extract
Skin Conditioning
Niacinamide
Smoothing
Limnanthes Alba Seed Oil
Skin Conditioning
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
Masking
Phosphatidylcholine
EmulsifyingCeramide NP
Skin Conditioning
Glycine
Buffering
Glutamic Acid
Humectant
Serine
Masking
Lysine
Skin ConditioningAlanine
Masking
Arginine
Masking
Threonine
Proline
Skin Conditioning
Water, Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate, Lauryl Betaine, Acrylates Copolymer, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Hydroxyacetophenone, Polyquaternium-10, Hexylene Glycol, Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, Panthenol, Butylene Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium PCA, Disodium EDTA, 1,2-Hexanediol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Citrullus Lanatus Fruit Extract, Niacinamide, Limnanthes Alba Seed Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Phosphatidylcholine, Ceramide NP, Glycine, Glutamic Acid, Serine, Lysine, Alanine, Arginine, Threonine, Proline
Water
Skin ConditioningLauryl Hydroxysultaine
CleansingAcrylates Copolymer
Sodium Chloride
MaskingSodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate
Cleansing
Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate
CleansingPotassium Cocoyl Glycinate
Surfactant
Potassium Cocoate
Emulsifying
Dipropylene Glycol
HumectantHydroxyacetophenone
Antioxidant
Caprylyl Glycol
Emollient
Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Oil
Masking
Houttuynia Cordata Powder
Skin ConditioningHexylene Glycol
EmulsifyingEthylhexylglycerin
Skin ConditioningDisodium EDTA
Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate
Humectant
Tocopherol
Antioxidant
Water, Lauryl Hydroxysultaine, Acrylates Copolymer, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate, Potassium Cocoate, Dipropylene Glycol, Hydroxyacetophenone, Caprylyl Glycol, Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Oil, Houttuynia Cordata Powder, Hexylene Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Disodium EDTA, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Tocopherol
Ingredients Explained
These ingredients are found in both products.
Ingredients higher up in an ingredient list are typically present in a larger amount.
Acrylates Copolymer is used as a film-forming agent and texture enhancer.
After applied, Acrylates Copolymer forms a thin film cover that helps skin feel more soft. It can help sunscreens become more water-resistant.
It is also used to make a product more thick.
Learn more about Acrylates CopolymerDisodium 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.
Disodium EDTA is a chelating agent. It grabs onto and deactivates metal ions that sneak into your products from water, packaging, or air.
This ingredient mainly works behind the scenes and helps with:
On top of that, this ingredient can counteract the effects of hard water by binding to the minerals in it.
One thing worth knowing is that Disodium EDTA has been shown to be a mild penetration enhancer. It can help other ingredients absorb into skin more effectively which can be a double-edged sword (great for actives, but can also make the active too strong if you have sensitive skin).
Clinical patch testing showed no significant skin irritation at typical use concentrations and minimal dermal absorption.
You'll most likely see this ingredient near the end of an ingredient list. It's typically found in concentrations less than 1%.
Learn more about Disodium EDTAEthylhexylglycerin is created from glycerin. It is a multitasker ingredient that:
The CIR Expert Panel found minimal skin absorption or sensitization of any kind in a safety assessment. Though this ingredient is considered well-tolerated, a small number of cases of allergic dermatitis have been published since 2002. Just be sure to patch test if you are unsure.
Industry-reported use ranges from 8% in rinse-off products and 2% in leave-on formulations.
Learn more about EthylhexylglycerinHexylene Glycol is a multitasker ingredient that works as a solvent, humectant, emulsifier, viscosity reducer, and preservative booster.
It is able to dissolve both water and oil-soluble ingredients to stabilize tricky actives and make products spread more easily.
As a humectant, it pulls water into the skin. But it's a pretty minor moisturizing ingredient compared to other humectants, like glycerin.
Interestingly, it can act as a mild penetration enhancer. One in vitro study on human skin found a 12% concentration upped the absorption of mometasone furoate (a medicinal ingredient used to treat inflammatory skin conditions) up to 7%.
This ingredient is typically used at levels of 0.1-10% depending on the role it's playing.
A patch test study on eczema patients didn't find a significant increase in irritation versus the control group, but the potential for irritation rises at higher concentrations.
Learn more about Hexylene GlycolHydroxyacetophenone is a small phenolic molecule that earns its place in a formulas as an antioxidant and preservative booster.
As a phenol, it is able to neutralize free radicals to protect both the product and the skin from oxidative stress.
Though it can't kill microbes on its own, it works as a good supporting agent when combined with other preservatives like Phenoxyethanol or 1,2-Hexanediol.
This ingredient naturally occurs as piceol in Norwegian spruce needles (~0.4-1.1% dry weight and in cloudberries). Though the cosmetic-grade material is synthesized for purity and consistency.
You'll usually see it used at low levels and suppliers recommend up to 1% added to a water phase.
Safety testing was done at concentrations like 0.05% in SPF products and 0.5% in a Human Repeated Insult Patch Test. The safety evidence is assuring; this ingredient is safe for cosmetics in current use and also holds safety status as a food flavoring as well.
An honest caveat: the "soothing" and "anti-inflammatory" claims come mostly from supplier marketing rather than published clinical trials. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review's own literature search found no useful efficacy studies on this ingredient.
So the antioxidant and preservative-boosting roles are the well supported ones while the calming benefit is plausible but thinly evidenced.
Overall, this is a well-tolerated, low-irritation multitasker that quietly helps a formula stay fresh and stable.
Learn more about HydroxyacetophenoneThis ingredient is the potassium salt of coconut acid. Coconut acid is created by mixing fatty acids from coconut oil.
It is an emulsifier, surfactant, and cleanser. According to a manufacturer, it contains glycerin.
Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate is an amino acid-based surfactant and cleaning agent. This ingredient can be derived from animals or plants. It may also be synthetically created from fatty acids of the coconut and glycine.
Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate is a gentle surfactant. Surfactants help gather the dirt, oil, and other pollutants from your skin to be rinsed away. It is a mild cleanser and naturally produces foam.
Chances are, you eat sodium chloride every day. Sodium Chloride is also known as table salt. This ingredient has many purposes in skincare: thickener, emulsifier, and exfoliator.
You'll most likely find this ingredient in cleansers where it is used to create a gel-like texture. As an emulsifier, it also prevents ingredients from separating.
You might see people debate whether Sodium Chloride is comedogenic, but there actually haven't been any comedogenic tests done on it. Either way, the overall formulation of a product matters a lot more than any single ingredient.
You might see this ingredient used in scrubs as a primary exfoliating ingredient.
Learn more about Sodium ChlorideWater. 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
