What's inside
What's inside
Key Ingredients
No key ingredients
Benefits
Concerns
Ingredients Side-by-side
Water
Skin ConditioningCocamidopropyl Betaine
Cleansing
Glycerin
Humectant
Sodium C14-18 Olefin Sulfonate
CleansingLactic Acid
Buffering
Decyl Glucoside
Cleansing
PEG-150 Distearate
Emulsifying
Potassium Hydroxide
BufferingMethyl Gluceth-20
Humectant
Disodium Cocoyl Glutamate
Cleansing
Phenoxyethanol
Preservative
Sodium Chloride
MaskingHydroxypropyl Methylcellulose
Emulsion StabilisingSalicylic Acid
Masking
Succinic Acid
BufferingPropylene Glycol
Humectant
Arginine
Masking
Sodium PCA
Humectant
Butylene Glycol
Humectant
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract
Emollient
Tetrasodium EDTA
Sodium Sulfate
Ethylhexylglycerin
Skin ConditioningCamellia Sinensis Leaf Extract
Antimicrobial
Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract
Skin Conditioning
Water, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin, Sodium C14-18 Olefin Sulfonate, Lactic Acid, Decyl Glucoside, PEG-150 Distearate, Potassium Hydroxide, Methyl Gluceth-20, Disodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Chloride, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Salicylic Acid, Succinic Acid, Propylene Glycol, Arginine, Sodium PCA, Butylene Glycol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Sulfate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract
Water
Skin ConditioningGlycerin
Humectant
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Cleansing
Sodium Laureth Sulfate
Cleansing
Decyl Glucoside
Cleansing
Sodium Chloride
MaskingSodium PCA
Humectant
Sodium Benzoate
Masking
Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer
Emulsion StabilisingPanthenol
Skin Conditioning
Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate
Cleansing
Butylene Glycol
Humectant
Allantoin
Skin Conditioning
Propylene Glycol
Humectant
Disodium EDTA
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract
Emollient
Glyceryl Polyacrylate
Citric Acid
Buffering
Centella Asiatica Extract
Cleansing
Potassium Sorbate
Preservative
Water, Glycerin, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Chloride, Sodium PCA, Sodium Benzoate, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Panthenol, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Butylene Glycol, Allantoin, Propylene Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Glyceryl Polyacrylate, Citric Acid, Centella Asiatica Extract, Potassium Sorbate
Reviews
Ingredients Explained
These ingredients are found in both products.
Ingredients higher up in an ingredient list are typically present in a larger amount.
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract is an extract of the leaves of the aloe, Aloe barbadensis, Liliaceae.
Aloe is one of the most well-known natural soothing ingredients, and for good reason. It’s full of water and has a cooling, calming effect on the skin, especially when it’s sunburned, itchy, or irritated. Aloe also helps your skin stay hydrated and smooth by mimicking what healthy skin naturally produces. On top of that, it contains vitamins and nutrients that support skin recovery.Â
It doesn’t protect you from the sun, but it can help your skin bounce back after too much time in it.
Let’s get into the details:
Aloe contains antioxidant Vitamins A, C, and E, which help fight off free radicals (unstable molecules from things like pollution that can damage your skin).
It’s also rich in polysaccharides, which are natural sugars that help hydrate the skin by acting like the skin’s own moisturizing agents. These, along with other sugars like monosaccharides, help form a protective barrier that locks in moisture.
Aloe works as both a humectant and an emollient. That means it draws water into the skin (humectant) and helps trap it there (emollient), making it an effective natural moisturizer.
You’ll also find a mix of other skin-supporting ingredients in aloe, including folic acid, choline, calcium, amino acids, fatty acids, and even Vitamin B12.
Out of the 420+ species of aloe, Aloe barbadensis is the most widely used in skincare products thanks to its gentle yet effective properties.
There are over 420 species of aloe but Aloe Barbadensis is the most commonly used for topical products.
Learn more about Aloe Barbadensis Leaf ExtractButylene Glycol (or BG) is used within cosmetic products for a few different reasons:
Overall, Butylene Glycol is a safe and well-rounded ingredient that works well with other ingredients.
Though this ingredient works well with most skin types, some people with sensitive skin may experience a reaction such as allergic rashes, closed comedones, or itchiness.
Learn more about Butylene GlycolCocamidopropyl Betaine is a fatty acid created by mixing similar compounds in coconut oil and dimethylaminopropylamine, a compound with two amino groups.
This ingredient is a surfactant and cleanser. It helps gather the dirt, pollutants, and other impurities in your skin to be washed away. It also helps thicken a product and make the texture more creamy.
Being created from coconut oil means Cocamidopropyl Betaine is hydrating for the skin.
While Cocamidopropyl Betaine was believed to be an allergen, a study from 2012 disproved this. It found two compounds in unpure Cocamidopropyl Betaine to be the irritants: aminoamide and 3-dimethylaminopropylamine. High-grade and pure Cocamidopropyl Betaine did not induce allergic reactions during this study.
Learn more about Cocamidopropyl BetaineDecyl Glucoside is a plant-derived surfactant and emulsion stabilizer. It is created by reacting glucose with the fatty acids from plants.
Like all surfactants, it works by lowering the surface tension between water and oil. This makes it so that dirt, sebum, and makeup can be lifted off your skin and rinsed away. It also produces a dense and creamy foam.
Because it has a neutral charge, it is compatible with a wide range of ingredients and stays stable across a broad pH range/water hardiness conditions.
Patch testing has shown it to have the lowest irritation potential among common cleansing surfactants (like SLS).
Typical use levels range from 5-20% in rinse-off cleansers.
One thing worth knowing: The American Contact Dermatitis Society named the parent family, alkyl glucosides, "Allergen of the Year" in 2017. The prevalence of allergy is pretty low but be sure to patch test if you've reacted to "gentle" or sulfate-free cleansers before.
This ingredient is fungal acne safe because the fatty alcohol portion of this ingredient is not within the C11-24 chain length that Malassezia can metabolize.
Learn more about Decyl GlucosideGlycerin (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 GlycerinPropylene Glycol is a synthetic, colorless, odorless liquid that has been a staple in cosmetics for decades. It is a skin conditioning agent, humectant, and solvent.
As a humectant, it draw water to the skin to reduce flaking and restore suppleness. It's also a solvent that helps dissolve other actives and keeps formulas stable across temperature changes.
The CIR Expert Panel has confirmed this ingredient to be nontoxic and clinical studies show no sensitization at cosmetic use concentrations.
True allergic reactions are quite rare: a 15-year retrospective study of 6,751 patients found only 0.31% had a positive reaction (and less than half were considered clinically relevant).
It seemed that when sensitization does occur, it's most commonly linked to topical medication (like corticosteroids) and not cosmetics. Allergic contact dermatitis also appears largely limited to individuals with underlying skin conditions.
Overall, propylene glycol is a well-studied ingredient that most people can tolerate without issue.
Learn more about Propylene GlycolChances 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 ChlorideSodium PCA is the sodium salt of pyroglutamic acid. It is naturally occurring in our skin's natural moisturizing factors where it works to maintain hydration.
The PCA stands for pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, a natural amino acid derivative.
This ingredient has skin conditioning, anti-inflammatory, and humectant properties. Humectants help hydrate your skin by drawing moisture from the air. This helps keep your skin moisturized.
Learn more about Sodium PCAWater. 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
