yavuzyilmaz/cosmetic-ingredients huggingface dataset:
Butylene Glycol
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.
Squalene
Squalene is an oily liquid that originally comes from shark liver but luckily it can also be found in a couple of plant oils. Olive (0.6%), peanut (0.1%) and pumpkin (0.35%) oils contain it, though not in huge amounts. What contains more of it, is the sebum (the oily stuff) that our skin produces. About 13% of human sebum is squalene, which means that it’s an important skin-identical ingredient and NMF (natural moisturizing factor) . Chemically speaking, it is an unsaturated (has double bonds) hydrocarbon (contains only carbon and hydrogen) molecule, that can undergo oxidation. On the pro side, this means that squalene can act as an antioxidant (while its no-double-bond version sister, squalane cannot), but on the con side, squalene is less stable and has a shorter shelf life . This is probably the main reason why its no-double bond and hence more stable sister, squalane shows up more often on ingredient lists. Read about squalane here >>
Ceteareth-20
A common functional ingredient that helps to keep the oil-loving and water-loving ingredients together (emulsifier), stabilizes and thickens the products. Chemically speaking, it is ethoxylated Cetearyl alcohol , meaning that some ethylene oxide is added to the fatty alcohol to increase the water-soluble part in the molecule. The result is that the mainly oil soluble, emollient fatty alcohol is converted to an emulsifier molecule that keeps oil and water mixed in creams. The number in the name of Ceteareth emulsifiers refers to the average number of ethylene oxide molecules added and 20 makes a good emulsifier.
Glyceryl Stearate
A super common, waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together, gives body to creams and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth . Chemically speaking, it is the attachment of a glycerin molecule to the fatty acid called stearic acid . It can be produced from most vegetable oils (in oils three fatty acid molecules are attached to glycerin instead of just one like here) in a pretty simple, "green" process that is similar to soap making. It's readily biodegradable. It also occurs naturally in our body and is used as a food additive. As cosmetic chemist Colins writes it , "its safety really is beyond any doubt".
Glyceryl Stearate SE
An oily kind of ingredient that can magically blend with water all by itself. This is called self-emulsifying and SE in its name stands for that. The difference between "normal" Glyceryl Stearate and this guy is that the SE grade contains a small amount of water-loving soap molecules, such as sodium stearate . This increases Glyceryl Stearate's affinity for water and gives it stronger emulsifying abilities. Other than that, it’s a nice emollient that gives a smooth and soft appearance to the skin. You can read some more at Glyceryl Stearate >>
Potassium Sorbate
It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon , aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and the right pH value (pH 3-4). But even if everything is right, it’s not enough on its own . If you see potassium sorbate you should see some other preservative next to it too. BTW, it’s also a food preservative and even has an E number, E202.
Caprylyl Glycol
It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel . At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives , such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol . The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product. It's a popular duo.
Squalane
It seems to us that squalane is in fashion and there is a reason for it. Chemically speaking, it is a saturated  (no double bonds) hydrocarbon (a molecule consisting only of carbon and hydrogen), meaning that it's a nice and stable oily liquid with a long shelf life. It occurs naturally in certain fish and plant oils (e.g. olive), and in the sebum (the oily stuff our skin produces) of the human skin . As f.c. puts it in his awesome blog post , squalane's main things are " emolliency , surface occlusion, and TEWL prevention all with extreme cosmetic elegance ". In other words, it's a superb moisturizer that makes your skin nice and smooth, without being heavy or greasy. Another advantage of squalane is that it is pretty much compatible with all skin types and skin conditions . It is excellent for acne-prone skin and safe to use even if you have fungi-related skin issues, like seborrhea or fungal acne. The unsaturated (with double bonds) and hence less stable version of Squal a ne is Squal e ne, you can read about it here >>
Xanthan Gum
It's one of the most commonly used thickener s and emulsion stabilizers . If the product is too runny, a little xanthan gum will make it more gel-like. Used alone, it can make the formula sticky and it is a good team player so it is usually combined with other thickeners and so-called rheology modifiers (helper ingredients that adjust the flow and thus the feel of the formula). The typical use level of Xantha Gum is below 1%, it is usually in the 0.1-0.5% range. Btw, Xanthan gum is all natural, a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide) produced from individual sugar molecules ( glucose and sucrose ) via fermentation. It’s approved by Ecocert and also used in the food industry (E415).
Phenoxyethanol
It’s pretty much the current IT- preservative . It’s safe and gentle , but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben. It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic. Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10). It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Sodium Hydroxide
The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right. For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed. BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers. Sodium hydroxide in itself is a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totally harmless.
Ethoxydiglycol
A nice odorless liquid used mainly as a superior solubilizer and efficacy booster for cosmetic active ingredients such as skincare bigshot vitamin C , self-tanning active DHA or the anti-acne gold standard, benzoyl peroxide . Other than that it can also be used in hair care products where it gives a longer-lasting and more uniform coloring. According to a manufacturer, it might even prevent the formation of split ends.
Carbomer
A big molecule created from repeated subunits (a polymer of acrylic acid) that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula .  It usually has to be neutralized with a base (such as sodium hydroxide ) for the thickening to occur and it creates viscous, clear gels that also feel nice and non-tacky on the skin. No wonder, it is a very popular and common ingredient. Typically used at 1% or less in most formulations.
Laureth-23
A white waxy solid that helps water and oil to mix nicely together (emulsifier). It is derived from the fatty alcohol lauryl alcohol by ethoxylating it and thus making the molecule a lot more water-soluble. In fact, Laureth-23 is mostly water-soluble acting as a solubilizer for dissolving small amounts of oily things into water-based formulas.
Centella Asiatica Extract
Centella Asiatica - or sometimes also called Gotu Kola or Cica - has been used in folk medicine for hundreds of years. It’s traditionally used to improve small wounds , burns and scratches and it’s also a well known anti-inflammatory agent for eczema. Recently science has taken an interest in Gotu Kola as well and it turns out it really has many active compounds with several benefits. Just for hard-core geeks, the main biologically active compounds are pentacyclic triterpenoid saponins called asiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic and madecassic acid (also called centellosides). One of the biological activities of the centellosides is to be able to stimulate GAGs (glycosaminoglycans - polysaccharides that are part of the liquidy stuff between our skin cells), and especially hyaluronic acid synthesis in our skin. This is probably one of the reasons why Centella Asiatica Extract has nice skin moisturizing properties that was confirmed by a 25 people, four weeks study along with Centella's anti-inflammatory effects . Madecassoside can also help in burn wound healing through increasing antioxidant activity and enhancing collagen synthesis. Asiaticoside was shown to increase antioxidant levels on rats skin when applied at 0.2%. Centella Asiatica also often shows up in products that try to treat cellulite or striae . Of course, it cannot make a miracle but it might have some effect via regulating microcirculation and normalizing the metabolism in the cells of connective tissues. Bottom line : Gotu Kola is a great plant ingredient with proven wound healing, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Nice to spot on any ingredient list.
Sodium Phytate
It’s one of those little helper ingredients that makes sure the product stays the same over time . No color change or anything like that. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
Triethanolamine
It’s a little helper ingredient that helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be just right. It’s very alkaline (you know the opposite of being very acidic): a 1% solution has a pH of around 10. It does not have the very best safety reputation but in general, you do not have to worry about it. What is true is that if a product contains so-called N-nitrogenating agents (e.g.: preservatives like 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol, 5-Bromo-5-Nitro- 1,3-Dioxane or sodium nitrate - so look out for things with nitro, nitra in the name) that together with TEA can form some not nice carcinogenic stuff (that is called nitrosamines). But with proper formulation that does not happen, TEA in itself is not a bad guy. But let’s assume a bad combination of ingredients were used and the nitrosamines formed. :( Even in that case you are probably fine because as far as we know it cannot penetrate the skin. But to be on the safe side, if you see Triethanolamine in an INCI and also something with nitra, nitro in the name of it just skip the product, that cannot hurt.
Ferulic Acid
Ferulic Acid (FA) is a goodie that can be found naturally in plant cell walls. There is a lot of it especially in the bran of grasses such as rice, wheat and oats. FA - whose main job is to be an antioxidant - owes its fame to a 2005 research that discovered that adding in 0.5% FA to a 15% Vitamin C + 1% Vitamin E solution not only stabilizes the highly unstable, divaish Vit C, but it also doubles the photoprotection abilities of the formula. Couple of other studies show that FA just by itself is also a nice addition to cosmetic formulations: it can penetrate the skin (which is kind of important to do the job) and it has protecting properties against UV caused skin damage. So if you spot it on the ingredient list be happy about it. :)
Limonene
A super common and cheap fragrance ingredient . It's in many plants, e.g. rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and it's the main component (about 50-90%) of the peel oil of citrus fruits. It does smell nice but the problem is that it oxidizes on air exposure and the resulting stuff is not good for the skin. Oxidized limonene can cause allergic contact dermatitis and counts as a frequent skin sensitizer . Limonene's nr1 function is definitely being a fragrance component, but there are several studies showing that it's also a penetration enhancer, mainly for oil-loving components. All in all, limonene has some pros and cons, but - especially if your skin is sensitive - the cons probably outweigh the pros.
Panthenol
An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. As you might guess from the “pro” part, it’s a precursor to vitamin B5 (whose fancy name is pantothenic acid). Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin . It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. There is also research showing that panthenol can help our skin to produce more lovely lipids that are important for a strong and healthy skin barrier. Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. fragrance, preservatives or chemical sunscreens) in the product. Research also shows that it might be useful for wound healing as it promotes fibroblast (nice type of cells in our skin that produce skin-firming collagen) proliferation. If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products . A study shows that a nail treatment liquide with 2% panthenol could effectively get into the nail and significantly increase the hydration of it. As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there. Panthenol might make your hair softer, more elastic and helps to comb your hair more easily.
Opuntia Ficus-Indica Extract
Prickly pear is a cactus that’s native to Mexico. It has large, sweet fruit that’s called tunas and has been used as a source of food since pre-Hispanic Mexico. Currently jams and jellies are produced from it and also a traditional Mexican alcoholic drink called colonche . But what is it doing in our skincare products? Well, according to swiss manufacturer, Mibelle its two main properties are that it soothes and hydrates the skin .  And what’s more, they have also created some nice test results both in vitro and in vivo (in the lab tubes and on humans) showing that Opuntia Ficus-Indica can protect skin cells against UV light . And that’s still not all. An American manufacturer has combined the ingredient with yeast extract and the two together helps to reduce neurosensory irritation caused by the application of topical products such as retinoids (slow reaction), alpha hydroxy acids (fast reaction) or preservatives which induce some type of irritation or inflammation. The bottom line: though we could not really find independent published research, we definitely think that Prickly Pear’s name sounds cool + it’s a very promising ingredient that seems to have great soothing and protecting abilities.
Linalool
Linalool is a super common fragrance ingredient. It’s kind of everywhere - both in plants and in cosmetic products. It’s part of 200 natural oils including lavender, ylang-ylang, bergamot, jasmine, geranium and it can be found in 90-95% of prestige perfumes on the market. The problem with linalool is, that just like limonene it oxidises on air exposure and becomes allergenic . That’s why a product containing linalool that has been opened for several months is more likely to be allergenic than a fresh one. A study made in the UK with 483 people tested the allergic reaction to 3% oxidised linalool and 2.3% had positive test results.
Tocopherol
Vitamin E is the major fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin . As a strong antioxidant it’s an A-player in protecting the skin cells from the nasty little things called free-radicals that want to destroy the lovely collagen that makes our skin nice and firm. Because it’s fat soluble our skin just loves to absorb it (as opposed to water soluble things where we have to trick our skin to absorb them). Vit E can be found in many foods: vegetables, oils, seeds, nuts, corn, soy, whole wheat flour, margarine and even some meats and dairy products. The natural form is denoted by a ‘d’ in the beginning of the name and  ‘dl’ denotes the synthetic form. While this is absolutely not always true, in this case research shows that the natural form is more active and is better absorbed . The name tocopherol actually refers to a whole group of stuff and it has four subtypes : alpha, beta, gamma and delta. The subtypes are quite different: alpha-tocopherol is the nicest and most active one, while delta-tocopherol seems to be the lazy guy and does not even have antioxidant properties. In cosmetic products mixed tocopherol (containing all subtypes) or alpha-tocopherol is the best choice. There are lots of studies showing that Vit E has some nice photoprotection properties , meaning it can protect the skin from UV (and in case of Vit E it’s mainly UVB) rays. If you put it on your skin,  it lowers the production of sunburn cells, reduces the damage caused by UVB rays and inhibits photocarcinogenesis. What it does not do is helping agains UVA caused skin issues like sagging. But if you combine it with Vit C (especially in high amount like 15%), the two together work in synergy , give broad spectrum protection and double each other's effectiveness. There is also this urban legend that Vit E helps in wound healing. Well, that just seems to be a legend. Several studies were made to prove this point but so far none of them managed to do so. In some cases it made things even worse. :( So if you have some surgical scars do not put Vit E containing stuff on it. It’s an urban legend , no proof.
Biosaccharide Gum-1
Biosaccharide Gum-1 is a pretty interesting kind of sugar ingredient that is created from sorbitol via bacterial fermentation. According to the manufacturer it’s a “S.M.A.R.T.” sugar : it has Soothing, Moisturizing, Anti-aging, Restructuring and Touch properties. Let’s look at them quickly one by one. Soothing : the manufacturer tested out the soothing effect in vivo (meaning on humans that is always a good thing!) by measuring how 3% Biosaccharide Gum-1 decreased the tingling sensation caused by 10% lactic acid. The result was good: the tingling was decreased by 47%. Moisturizing : Compared to famous hyaluronic acid , it turns out that the two are great together. HA has a quicker effect and provides more instant hydration (much more hydration was measured after 1h of application), while our nice sugar has a somewhat delayed effect demonstrating stronger hydration after 3h of application. After 8 hours both had similar moisturizing effect. Anti-aging : According to ex-vivo tests (meaning not on humans, so do not trust it too much) Biosaccharide Gum-1 can stimulate a protein in our skin called sirtuin-1 . This is supposed to help our skin cells to live longer, and function better. Resurfacing :  The sirtuin-1 stimulation also results in quicker cell renewal - something that happens anyway but slows down as we age. And the quicker cell renewal is good because it helps the regeneration of the barrier function. That is especially nice for fragile, sensitive skin. Touch : our fermented sugar is not only good to the skin, but it also feels great on the skin. It gives a nice “soft touch” feeling and makes the products pleasant to use. The bottom line is that the above info is from the manufacturer (and we could not find any relevant independent research) so obviously take it with a grain of salt. But Biosaccharide Gum-1 does look as an interesting and promising ingredient that’s why it earned our goodie rating.
Beta-Glucan
Beta-Glucan is a nice big molecule composed of many smaller sugar molecules (called polysaccharide). It’s in the cell walls of yeast, some mushrooms, seaweeds, and cereals. It’s a real goodie no matter if you eat it or put it on your face. Eating it is anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and even lowers blood cholesterol. Putting it on your face also does a bunch of good things: it‘s shown to have intensive skin repairing & wound healing properties , it’s a mild antioxidant , a great skin soother, and moisturizer , and it even shows promising anti-aging benefits . The manufacturer of the ingredient did a published study with 27 people and examined the effect of 0.1% beta-glucan. They found that despite the large molecular size the smaller factions of beta-glucan penetrate into the skin, even into the dermis (the middle layer of the skin where wrinkles form). After 8 weeks there was a significant reduction of wrinkle depth and height and skin roughness has also improved greatly. Bottom line: Beta-glucan is a great ingredient, especially for sensitive or damaged skin . It soothes, moisturizes, and has some anti-aging magic properties.
Lactococcus Ferment Lysate
Lactococcus Ferment Lysate is a fairly new probiotic ingredient that is obtained from the Gram-positive bacteria, Lactococcus lactis. The lysate is a fluid substance that is produced when you break down the cell membrane, which means it contains interesting things including cytoplasm and cell wall fragments. According to the manufacturer , it positively influences both the speed and quality of epidermal growth that results in better barrier function and overall skin quality. To prove their point, the German manufacturer conducted several in-vitro (made in test tubes) tests examining how the treatment with Lactococcus Ferment Lysate (LFL) affects important skin proteins. They found that gene expression influencing the proteins binding the live skin cells together (such as Occludin, Desmocollin 1 and Desmoglein 1) is stimulated by LFL, as well as the expression of enzymes (Kallikrein 5 and 7) breaking the bonds between the shedding dead skin cells. LFL also had a positive influence on epidermal growth and on the thickness of the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the skin). Another positive finding was that LFL stimulated the production of antimicrobial peptides that play an important role in the immunocompetence of the skin cells. As for in-vivo tests, the manufacturer only did one and that had only 5 volunteers. They did some tape stripping (exactly what it sounds, hurting the skin by stripping off the top layers) and examined skin renewal and barrier recovery. 4 days after the experiment 3% Lactococcus Ferment Lysate used twice daily resulted in thicker stratum corneum (the difference was about 2 µm) and less trans-epidermal water loss. Overall , Lactococcus Ferment Lysate is a promising but fairly unproven ingredient that might help with the natural skin renewal process as well as with a healthy skin barrier and skin flora.