How to read your ingredients

Looking at the list of ingredients in your skin care, or any product can be daunting. So let’s break it down a bit.

We often think “if I can’t pronounce it, it must be some kind of chemical that’s bad for me.” And there are a lot of ingredients that are difficult to understand on their face.  In the skin care industry, manufacturers are required to list ingredients by their “common” name and by their International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (“INCI”) name. That’s the one that sometimes sounds scary. For instance, “simmondsia chinensis” is the INCI name for Jojoba Oil, which is an awesome oil we use a lot in our products.

Also, let’s face it, skin care products are made up of an array of ingredients that are in and of themselves chemicals, simply defined as any substance that has a defined composition. So let’s not necessarily be afraid of those chemically sounding names. BUT there are plenty of chemical ingredients in skin care that can be harmful, irritating, toxic or just plain yucky on your skin. So we have put together a chart of each ingredient in our products, an explanation of their use, and their score on the Environmental Working Group analytical system (1 being the safest, 10 being the most toxic on your skin.)

Another important aspect of “know your ingredients” is understanding the order of ingredients on the labels.  Ingredients are required to be listed on labels in descending order of the amount in the product. In other words, the first ingredient listed makes up the highest percentage of that product. If you look at your other skin care products, water (aqua) is more often than not the first ingredient listed. Now, don’t get us wrong, water plays a very important part in effective, natural skin care. We just don’t believe that it needs to be the predominant ingredient. That is why you will note that none of our products has water as the first ingredient. We have opted to replace high content water with Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (Aloe Vera), which brings an added element of soothing and healing to your skin not found in water alone.