3-MINUTE PHD IN SKINCARE INGREDIENTS - PART 1

"You need a freaking degree to understand these things!" - Ever found yourself thinking this?  There are actually Ingredient Codes which make understanding labels a piece of Coconut Cake...

Here is one of the tricks:

My kids' last name is Eisner.  People who meet them, know that they are from the Eisner Family.

Just like your Family Name can give some clues about your origin, Ingredients often have their origin as part of their name...

Ever seen the ingredient Cocoamidyl Propyl Betaine in an ingredient list?  It is a lovely, low-foaming surfactant (foaming agent), that is made from Coconut. 

Cocamide DEA, Coco glucoside, Glyceryl Cocoate, Cococaprylate/Caprate, etc. are all examples of ingredients names which reveal that they are from the Coconut Family.

Here are some other common ancestral clue examples you can see in Ingredient lists

Sorbitan Olivate:  Olive Trees

Retinyl Palmitate: Palm Trees

Decyl Glucoside, Glycolic Acid: Sugarcane

But just like people's family names don't necessarily reveal their ancestry, sometimes ingredients names  are clue-"less":

Capryl Triglycerides come from Coconut but you wouldn't know it from it's name.  Glycerine sounds like it comes from sugarcane but might be sourced from a number of vegetable sources, including soybean, coconut or palm.  

So, yes this trick doesn't completely decode all ingredients but it can give you some insight into some of the ingredients you are putting on your skin.

QED Skincare is a luxury skincare brand formulated for Sensitive skin from premium plant-based ingredients.  We choose to use palm-free ingredients. Click here to shop QED products now.

You can always check our ingredient lists on the individual product pages to see a full list of what is in our products.

Got a Skin or Skincare Question?  Ask me