At the end of the day, branding is likely to exaggerate the claims of a product and conflate the expectations you should have from your skincare. Luckily, ingredients keep it real. Are you aching to discover skincare worth your money and chuck brands that aren’t? Want to dissect skincare product labels without pulling your hair? Here’s a simple guide to reading ingredient lists for skincare. 

An essential disclaimer: Cosmetics formulators are known to live by the Gestalt philosophy of ‘the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.’ In other words, just because you see certain ingredients in a product, doesn’t mean those ingredients will behave the way they act independently, outside of the formula. This is because they interact with other ingredients in the product to create a unique experience on the skin. Anyone attempting the Herculean task of decoding skincare ingredient lists without a dermatology/cosmetics formulation degree should always keep this in mind. 

To ensure this piece is trustworthy I have curated the advice from qualified dermatologists and cosmetics formulators who have answered this question across the internet. Here’s how you decode ingredients.

1. Consider the Order: Predominant Ingredients are Listed First

Similar to any processed or packaged food, the ingredient list of a skincare product is listed in descending order starting with the most predominant ingredients in the formula. This tip can help you estimate whether a product that ‘claims’ to use a wonder ingredient such as Vitamin C or Niacinamide, actually lists it high enough for the concentration to be effective. A simple rule of thumb: if the ‘wonder ingredient’ is not listed in the top six ingredients, it is probably not going to work for your skin. However, this has some caveats which I will cover.

Branding is sneaky. Marketers throw certain ingredients on their product’s packaging to make sales while they may only use trace amounts of it in the formula. You may be paying for the ingredient but using amounts that are shown by research to be too minimal to actually make a difference to the average person’s skin. In fact, ingredients right at the bottom of the list usually have a concentration of 1% or less! But this doesn’t always mean the ingredients listed on the lower end may be ineffective.