Category
Glossary
148 entries
- Vegan Skincareproducts formulated without any ingredients derived from animals or animal byproducts, such as honey, beeswax, lanolin, carmine, or collagen sourced from animals. Vegan status...
- Clean Beauty (Term)an unregulated marketing term generally used to describe products positioned as being made without ingredients a brand deems undesirable, often emphasizing safety, transparency, or...
- Free-From (Term)a marketing label indicating that a product has been formulated without one or more specific ingredients, such as "free from parabens" or "free from...
- Nanoparticlean extremely small particle, generally defined as measuring between roughly 1 and 100 nanometers in at least one dimension. In skincare, nanoparticles appear in...
- Cosmeceuticala marketing term for a cosmetic product that is claimed to offer skin benefits associated with active, biologically functional ingredients, positioned somewhere between a...
- Compedogenicity Ratinga numerical scale, typically from 0 to 5, used to estimate how likely an individual ingredient is to clog pores and contribute to comedones...
- Occlusionthe formation of a physical barrier on the skin's surface that slows the evaporation of water, a process known as transepidermal water loss. Occlusive...
- Viscositya measure of a fluid's resistance to flow, essentially how thick or runny a formula feels. In skincare it determines whether a product pours...
- Micellea microscopic cluster of surfactant molecules that self-assemble in water, with their oil-attracting tails pointing inward and their water-attracting heads facing outward. This arrangement...
- Surfactanta versatile ingredient that lowers the tension between two surfaces, allowing substances like oil, water, and dirt to mix or lift away more easily....
- Emulsifieran ingredient that allows oil and water to combine into a stable, uniform mixture that would otherwise separate. It works because part of its...
- Emulsiona stable blend of two liquids that normally do not mix, most often oil and water, held together with the help of an emulsifier....
- Preservativean ingredient added to a product to prevent the growth of bacteria, mold, and yeast, keeping it safe and stable over its shelf life....
- Essential Oila concentrated plant extract that captures the aromatic compounds of a flower, leaf, peel, or other botanical, usually obtained through distillation or cold pressing....
- Fragrance (Parfum)a blanket term on ingredient labels for a blend of aroma compounds, and sometimes solvents and fixatives, added to give a product its scent....
- Percutaneous Absorptionthe process by which a substance applied to the skin passes through its layers and, in some cases, into the bloodstream. It typically involves...
- Molecular Weight (Skincare)the size of an ingredient's molecule, expressed in daltons, which strongly influences how readily it can pass through the skin's outer barrier. As a...
- Bioavailabilitya measure of how much of an applied ingredient actually reaches its intended site in the skin in an active, usable form. In topical...
- Penetration Enhancera substance added to a topical formula to temporarily increase how easily other ingredients cross the skin's outer barrier and reach deeper layers. Common...
- Encapsulationa formulation technique in which an active ingredient is enclosed within a protective carrier or shell before being added to a product. This can...
- Osmolytea small molecule that helps cells manage their water balance and stay hydrated under stress by regulating osmotic pressure. In skincare, ingredients that act...
- Isotonica term describing a solution whose concentration of dissolved particles matches that inside skin cells, so it neither draws water out of nor forces...
- pHa measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is, expressed on a scale from 0 to 14 where 7 is neutral. In skincare...
- PHA (Polyhydroxy Acid)a class of exfoliating acids often described as a gentler alternative to AHAs because of their larger molecular size. Examples such as gluconolactone and...
