Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin [hello long baths!] is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized [it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed]. Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product.
BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin [penetration enhancer], making the product spread nicely over the skin [slip agent], and attracting water [humectant] into the skin.
It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone [at least not that we know about]. BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive.
- A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
- A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
- Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy [liquid crystal] state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
- Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
- High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
It's a sweet tasting sugar substitute that helps your skin to hold onto water when used in cosmetic products. It also helps to thicken up products and give them a bit more slip.
A sugar derived liquid that works as a water-soluble emollient [makes your skin nice and smooth], fragrance fixative and humectant [helps skin to hold onto water] on the skin.
A pretty well-known and often used ingredient with the magic ability to fade brown spots. It's used traditionally in Japan and can be found naturally in a couple of plants, including the leaves of pear trees, wheat and bearberry.
Arbutin seems to work its magic and hinder the pigmentation process at the second step of it. An enzyme called tyrosinase is needed to create melanin [the pigment that causes the brown spots] and while several other skin lightening agents work to inhibit the synthesis of tyrosinase itself [like vitamin C or licorice], arbutin lets tyrosinase be and rather hinders the melanin-forming activity of the enzyme. [So it might be a good idea to combine arbutin with some direct tyrosinase inhibitors for more skin lightening effect.]
All in all, arbutin is one of the better-known skin brightening agents, that's probably worth a try if pigmentation is an issue for you.
It’s the - sodium form - cousin of the famous NMF, hyaluronic acid [HA]. If HA does not tell you anything we have a super detailed, geeky explanation about it here. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer [big molecule from repeated subunits] found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. HA is famous for its crazy water holding capacity as it can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water.
As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. As cosmetic chemist kindofstephen writes on reddit "sodium hyaluronate disassociates into hyaluronic acid molecule and a sodium atom in solution".
In spite of this, if you search for "hyaluronic acid vs sodium hyaluronate" you will find on multiple places that sodium hyaluronate is smaller and can penetrate the skin better. Chemically, this is definitely not true, as the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like. [We also checked Prospector for sodium hyaluronate versions actually used in cosmetic products and found that the most common molecular weight was 1.5-1.8 million Da that absolutely counts as high molecular weight].
What seems to be a true difference, though, is that the salt form is more stable, easier to formulate and cheaper so it pops up more often on the ingredient lists.
If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert you can read way more about the topic at hyaluronic acid [including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature].
Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid is a low molecular weight, chemically chopped up version of the naturally big molecule and current IT-moisturizer, Hyaluronic Acid [HA]. The TL; DR version of HA is that it's a huge polymer [big molecule from repeated subunits] found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to retain water, making it plump and elastic. As HA is a polymer, the subunits can be repeated many times [as a high-molecular-weight version], or just a few times [as a low-molecular-weight version].
We wrote in detail at HA about how different molecular weight versions do different things both as a component of the skin and as a skincare ingredient, so click here and read about all the details. Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid can also come in different molecular-weight versions with different properties:
- 100-300 kDa version: apart from moisturizing, this size might also help the skin to repair itself by increasing its self-defense. It is also claimed to boost the wound healing process and is especially helpful for sensitive skin types [acne, rosacea, inflammation-related skin diseases].
- 50k Da version: this is the size that is claimed to be able to absorb into the skin and plump up wrinkles, so it is used mainly as an "anti-aging ingredient"
- below 50k, around 10k Da version: there is a Japanese version trade named Hyalo-Oligo that has only a 10k molecular weight and is claimed to penetrate the skin very well, have a unique touch and give deep and long-lasting moisturization. Based on the Evonik-research and the natural role of LMW-HA in the body working as a pro-inflammatory signal molecule, this ultra-low molecular weight version is a controversial ingredient.
If you wanna become a real HA-and-the-skin expert, you can read much more about the topic at hyaluronic acid [including penetration-questions, differences between high and low molecular weight versions and a bunch of references to scientific literature].
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Also-called: Vitamin E | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0-3 | Comedogenicity: 0-3
- Primary fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin
- Significant photoprotection against UVB rays
- Vit C + Vit E work in synergy and provide great photoprotection
- Has emollient properties
- Easy to formulate, stable and relatively inexpensive
A form of skincare superstar, Vitamin C. If you do not know, what the big deal about Vitamin C is, click here and read all about it, we will wait here for you.
So now you know that pure vitamin C [aka ascorbic acid, AA] is really unstable and hard to formulate so the cosmetics industry is coming up with a bunch of derivatives to solve the problem and Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate [or MAP] is one of them.
MAP does solve the stability problem: it's stable up to pH 7, so far so good. What is not so good is that, as the great review study about vitamin C derivatives in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology writes, MAP is "at very best, poorly absorbed in comparison to AA."
Moreover, derivatives not only have to be absorbed into the skin, they also have to be converted into pure AA. The good news is that in-vitro data shows that MAP does convert, but the bad news is we do not really know if the same is true on real, living human skin. Even if it does, we don't know how good the conversion rate is [but to be fair the same is true for all other derivatives].
Regarding the three magic abilities of pure vitamin C [antioxidant, collagen booster, skin brightener], there is no published data about MAP's antioxidant or photoprotection capabilities. We have better news about the other two things: in-vitro data shows that MAP can boost collagen synthesis similar to AA [though in the case of AA it's proven in-vivo] and even better, MAP is proven to work as a skin brightener in-vivo [on real people].
Bottom line: when it comes to vitamin C derivatives, MAP is definitely an option. We especially recommend it if you are after skin brightening as this seems to be the strongest point of MAP.
Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate is a variation of current IT moisturizer, Hyaluronic acid, where some water-loving -OH groups are replaced by amphipathic [partly water-loving and partly water-hating] acetyl groups. The modified molecule is claimed to have even better moisture retention ability than normal HA and better affinity to the skin surface.
The better affinity comes from the acetyl groups that act as tiny "anchors" to attach the HA molecule to the skin. Staying on top of the skin better and longer means longer-lasting surface hydration and improved elasticity. It is also less sticky and more cosmetically elegant than normal HA, so no wonder the nickname of this molecule is super hyaluronic acid.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
A mild, natural preservative that usually comes to the formula together with its other mild preservative friends, such as Benzoic Acid and/or Dehydroacetic Acid. Btw, it's also used as a food preservative.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
What-it-does: preservative | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
The most common type of feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason parabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient to make sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon.
Apart from the general controversy around parabens [we wrote about it more here], there is a 2006 in-vitro [made in the lab not on real people] research about methylparaben [MP] showing that when exposed to sunlight, MP treated skin cells suffered more harm than non-MP treated skin cells. The study was not done with real people on real skin but still - using a good sunscreen next to MP containing products is a good idea. [Well, in fact using a sunscreen is always a good idea. :]]
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Normal [well kind of - it's purified and deionized] water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products.
An often used glycol that works as a solvent, humectant, penetration enhancer and also gives a good slip to the products.
A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health.
It's a sweet tasting sugar substitute that helps your skin to hold onto water when used in cosmetic products. It also helps to thicken up products and give them a bit more slip.
A sugar derived liquid that works as a water-soluble emollient [makes your skin nice and smooth], fragrance fixative and humectant [helps skin to hold onto water] on the skin.
One of the better-known skin brightening agents that's found naturally for example in bearberry.
It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer.
Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid is a low molecular weight, chemically chopped up version of the naturally big molecule and current IT-moisturizer, Hyaluronic Acid [HA]. The TL;
Pure Vitamin E. Great antioxidant that gives significant photoprotection against UVB rays. Works in synergy with Vitamin C.
A form of skincare superstar, Vitamin C - it has proven skin-brightening abilities [in-vivo] and it might be able to boost collagen production as well [in-vitro].
Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate is a variation of current IT moisturizer, Hyaluronic acid, where some water-loving -OH groups are replaced by amphipathic [partly water-loving and partly water-hating] acetyl groups.
It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula.
A mild, natural preservative that usually comes to the formula together with its other mild preservative friends, such as Benzoic Acid and/or Dehydroacetic Acid.
The most common type of feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason parabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient to make sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon. Apart from the general controversy around parabens [we wrote about it more here], there is a 2006 in-vitro [made in the lab not on real people] research about methylparaben [MP] sho
Why is HADA LABO so good?
The ingredient used by Hada Labo, the Super Hyaluronic Acid is a unique blend of 3 types of hyaluronic acid that provides deep hydration, to significantly increase the skin's moisture level and also helps to support skin's fibers [collagen and elastin], allowing it to have an anti-aging effect.
What age group is HADA LABO for?
Hada Labo Tokyo - Anti-Ageing Wrinkle Reducer Day Cream with Super Hyaluronic Acid, Collagen and Retinol, For All Skin Type, for Age 40+, 50 ml Jar [Pack of 1]
What skin type is HADA LABO good for?
HADA LABO products are suitable for all skin types. They do not contain mineral oil and the Goku-jyun Lotion, Milk, and Cream are noncomedogenic so they won't contribute to clogged pores. If your skin is oily or pimple prone, it may be because it is dehydrated.
Can I use Hada Labo hydrating lotion everyday?
My answer is yes. I've been using the Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Moisturizing Lotion for about a month now, day and night. It takes a hell of a long time to get it fully absorbed though, so its not something to use if you're in a hurry for work in the morning.