Rating: Best
Categories: Emollient, Occlusive-Opacifying-Agent
AKA petroleum jelly. Widely considered one of the best and gentlest options for dry skin so it's often used in moisturizers and balms. It is highly purified and is safe as used in cosmetics.

Rating: Good
Categories: Texture-Enhancer, Emollient
Beneficial skin softening ingredient for skin (completely different from damaging/drying forms of alcohol). Also influences the foaming effects of a cleanser.

Rating: Best
Categories: Silicone, Emollient
An skin-softening silicone known for its permeable (think breathable) barrier that helps skin retain hydration. It has a uniquely silky, non-greasy feel.

Rating: Good
Categories: Emollient, Emulsifier, Texture-Enhancer
Mixture of fatty acids that serves several purposes in a skin care formula, including emollient, emulsifier thickening agent. Provides a soft after-feel to skin.

Rating: Good
Categories: Emollient, Emulsifier, Cleansing-Agent
This moisturizing ingredient is found naturally in the human body but is usually plant- or synthetically derived in cosmetics. It has been deemed safe as used in cosmetics and is also used as a food additive.

Rating: Good
Categories: Emollient, Texture-Enhancer, Film-Forming-Agent
Emollient, film-forming agent, and texture-enhancing ingredient. Leaves skin feeling soft and conditioned.

Rating: Good
Categories: Cleansing-Agent, Emulsifier, Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer
Versatile, commonly used ingredient that can be used as an emulsifier, cleansing agent, and emollient. In general, it helps enhance the texture of the formula and contributes to a soft after feel on skin.

Rating: Good
Categories: Silicone, Emollient
A silicone that helps lock in hydration and contributes to a product’s silky feel on skin. Often used in hair care to add luster and smoothness to tresses.

Rating: Best
Categories: Antioxidant, Retinoids
One of the most recognized anti-aging ingredients, this powerhouse has multiple benefits for skin. With over seven decades of research proving its effectiveness, it’s used in several strengths and types of products to deliver visible results.

Rating: Best
Categories: Plant-Extracts
Known for wrinkle-smoothing and skin-soothing benefits. Adenosine is also naturally present in skin, allowing for ideal biocompatibility.

Rating: Best
Categories: Peptides
This peptide blends four amino acids with a fatty acid to enhance penetration, where it goes to work quieting factors in skin that trigger irritation and damage to skin’s supportive elements.

Rating: Best
Categories: Peptides
This lab-made peptide matches a sequence of amino acids found in skin. As such, skin recognizes and can understand the signals the peptide sends, which leads to a smoother, more youthful appearance.

Rating: Best
Categories: Peptides
Synthetic peptide proven to strengthen skin’s underlying supportive elements and visibly reduce signs of sun damage such as wrinkles and rough texture.

Rating: Best
Categories: Humectant, Antioxidant
The more bio-available, salt form of hyaluronic acid. I’s considered an excellent moisturizer, helping skin retain water so it looks and feels smoother.

Rating: Best
Categories: Antioxidant, Humectant
Stable, hydrating form of vitamin C known to brighten dullness and improve skin's firm look and feel.

Rating: Best
Categories: Antioxidant, Humectant
Helps visibly minimize pore size, improve dull/uneven tone, and reduce wrinkle depth. Also known to fortify skin's barrier strength and boost hydration.

Rating: Best
Categories: Antioxidant
One of four forms of vitamin E. It can be naturally or synthetically derived. Regardless of its origin, tocopherol has potent oil-soluble antioxidant properties and can help defend skin from pollution and environmental stressors.

Rating: Best
Categories: Emollient, Emulsifier, Cleansing-Agent
Beneficial properties include emolliency (think skin softening), water-binding (to boost hydration), and emulsifying (to help water + oil ingredients mesh in a formula). Can also be used to encapsulate ingredients for improved dermal delivery.

Rating: Best
Categories: Emollient
Omega-6 fatty acid that’s the most abundant fatty acid found in skin’s upper layers. In skin care, it serves as an antioxidant, emollient, and thickening ingredient.

Rating: Best
Categories: Emollient, Cleansing-Agent
An omega-3 fatty acid that helps condition, support, and restore skin. Research also shows it has soothing and potentially spot-fading properties.

Rating: Best
Categories: Antioxidant, Retinoids
A form of vitamin A that’s found naturally in skin and works in cosmetics as an antioxidant. It has been ruled as safe as used in cosmetics.

Rating: Best
Categories: Plant-Extracts, Antioxidant
A type of green tea plant, this ingredient has antioxidant and soothing properties that make it an impressive addition to skin care products.

Rating: Best
Categories: Emollient, Plant-Extracts, Antioxidant
Glycine soja sterols, derived from soybeans, have both moisturizing and antioxidant properties.

Rating: Good
Categories: Humectant, Occlusive-Opacifying-Agent
This mix of glycerin and behenic acid conditions skin and has been deemed non-irritating and safe as used in cosmetics.

Rating: Good
Categories: Cleansing-Agent, Emulsifier
Cleansing agent/emulsifier that can help enhance the overall texture of the formula. In certain capacities, this ingredient can also help rejuvenate aging skin by keeping it pliant and supple.

Rating: Good
Categories: Texture-Enhancer, Absorbent
Naturally derived clay-based absorbent that is most often used to enhance the texture and spreadability of a formula.

Rating: Best
Categories: Humectant
This excellent hydrating ingredient is part of skin’s natural moisturizing factor (NMF). As such, it is a cornerstone of many moisturizers thanks to its ability to help skin both attract and retain moisture, resulting a more supple, youthful appearance.

Rating: Good
Categories: Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer, Humectant
The sodium salt of lactic acid, which works as a hydrating and buffering agent (to adjust a product’s pH value). It also offers antioxidant properties as a secondary benefit.

Rating: Average
Categories: Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer
Also known as lye, this ingredient is highly alkaline, meaning it is on the basic side of the pH range (its pH is naturally 13). It is used in small amounts in cosmetics (such as cleansers and exfoliants) adjust their pH.

Rating: Good
Categories: Texture-Enhancer, Emollient
Emollient and thickener/texture enhancer known to lend a light, silky feel.

Rating: Good
Categories: Emulsifier, Cleansing-Agent, Texture-Enhancer
Emulsifier and texture-enhancing ingredient that delivers softening properties to skin.

Rating: Good
Categories: Emollient, Texture-Enhancer
Skin-softening emollient known for its quick absorbance and velvety after feel. Also works as a thickening agent and formulary texture enhancer.

Rating: Good
Categories: Preservative, Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer
Safe, well-tolerated preservative that can also be used to achieve an ideal pH.

Rating: Good
Categories: Texture-Enhancer, Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer
This fatty, non-drying alcohol enhances a product’s texture and helps its moisturizing capabilities. It’s been deemed safe as used in skin care.

Rating: Good
Categories: Texture-Enhancer, Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer
This naturally derived ingredient functions as a thickener, stabilizer, and skin conditioning ingredient in cosmetics. It is a sugar-based ingredient produced through the fermentation of a fungus called Sclerotium rolfsii.

Rating: Good
Categories: Texture-Enhancer, Polymer, Ph-Adjuster-Stabilizer
Often used to create gel-textured formulas or to influence the product’s thickness. Research also shows carbomers can enhance the penetration effectiveness of key actives.

Rating: Good
Categories: Emollient, Texture-Enhancer, Solvent
Skin-softening, moisture-sealing emollient that can also be used to improve the smooth/even dispersion of a formula.

Rating: Good
Categories: Cleansing-Agent, Emulsifier
Used in cosmetics primarily as a mild cleansing agent, this coconut-derived ingredient is considered extremely stable and safe.

Rating: Good
Categories: Chelating-Agent
One of the salt forms of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, it improves the stability of other cosmetics ingredients, helping them last longer. It’s been deemed safe as used in cosmetics and is even used as an additive in some foods.

Rating: Good
Categories: Preservative
A preservative that can be naturally derived or made synthetically. It prevents the growth of bacteria, mold, and fungi and is considered safe as used in cosmetics.

Rating: Good
Categories: Preservative
Effective skin care preservative that inhibits contamination and helps stabilize the formula’s shelf life.

Rating: Good
Categories: Preservative
Safe preservative known to be well-tolerated by skin; offers wide spectrum protection against unwanted microbials in a formula.