Cosmetic ingredient functions

Maintaining the skin in good condition.

Enhancing the appearance and feel of hair. Leaving the hair easy to comb, supple, soft and shiny and/or imparting volum…

Acting as lubricants on the skin surface providing the skin with a soft and smooth appearance.

Wetting body surfaces, emulsifying or solubilizing oils, and suspending soil (generally, such ingredients contribute to…

Used for perfume and aromatic raw materials.

Helping suspensions or dispersions of liquids in a second liquid by reducing the surface tension of the substances to b…

Inhibiting reactions promoted by oxygen, thus avoiding oxidation and rancidity.

Helping to avoid harmful effects to the skin from external factors.

Retaining and/or preserving the moisture in a product during use.

Helping to keep the body surface clean.

Increasing or decreasing the viscosity (thickness) of cosmetics.

Imparting an odour or taste. Creating a perceivable pleasant smell and/or masking a bad smell.

Producing (upon application) a continuous film on the skin, hair or nails.

Preventing and/or reducing static electricity by neutralising electrical charge on surfaces.

Preventing and/or slowing down microbial growth.

Dissolving other components of cosmetics. Solvents are usually liquids (aqueous and nonaqueous).

Helping the process of emulsification and improving emulsion stability and shelf-life.

Contracting and/or tightening the skin.

Providing adhesive properties during and after compression in cosmetic tablets and/or cakes.

No function currently reported.

Increasing foaming capacity and/or stabilizing foams in general.

Imparting color to hair. Hair dyeing preparations may be temporary, semi-permanent, or permanent, depending on the leng…

Removing unwanted tissue or foreign materials from various body surfaces, including mechanical tooth cleaning and/or gl…

Producing a feeling of well-being on skin and hair.

Bleaching or lightening the shade of hair and/or skin.

Exclusively or mainly intended to colour the cosmetic product, the body as a whole or certain parts thereof, by absorpt…

Helping control sebum production.

Permitting physical control of hair style.

Stabilising the pH of an aqueous medium in a narrow range even if an acid or base is added. Altering and/or maintaining…

Reducing transparency or translucency of cosmetics.

Trapping numerous small bubbles of air or other gas within a small volume of liquid by modifying the surface tension of…

Exclusively or mainly intended to inhibit the development of micro-organisms in the cosmetic product. All authorised pr…

Providing cosmetic effects to the oral cavity, e.g. cleansing, deodorising, protecting.

Non-reactive (chemically inert), solid ingredients that dilute other solids and/or increase the volume of cosmetic prod…

Reducing and/or eliminating unpleasant odour. Contributing against the formation of malodour on body surfaces.

Improving and/or enhancing the cosmetic characteristics of the nail (moisturizing, increasing sheen, reducing brittlene…

Enhancing the water solubility of another surfactant.

Forming complexes with metal ions which could affect the stability and/or appearance of cosmetics.

Taking up water- and/or oil-soluble (dissolved or finely dispersed) substances.

Softening and making supple synthetic polymers that otherwise could not be easily deformed, spread or worked out.

Protecting the cosmetic product from the effects of UV-light.

Imparting taste and/or flavour to a cosmetic product.

Protecting the cosmetic product from deterioration effects of light.

Preventing agglomeration of particulate solids into lumps or hard masses (cohesive cake), thus allowing free flow of pa…

Enhancing the appearance of dry and/or damaged skin by reducing flaking and restoring suppleness.

Lightening discomfort of the skin or of the scalp.

Preventing or relieving the symptoms of seborrhea and/or seborrheic dermatitis, including dandruff.

Helping protect against plaque.

Modifying the chemical structure of the hair, allowing it to be set in the style required (permanent waves or hair stra…

Increasing the water content of the skin and keeping it soft and smooth.

Exclusively or mainly intended to protect the skin and/or hair against certain UV radiation by absorbing, reflecting or…

Changing the chemical nature of another ingredient by adding hydrogen (or removing oxygen).

Increasing the water content of the top layers of the skin. Humectants are primarily hygroscopic agents drawing moistur…

Suppressing foam during manufacturing or reducing the tendency of finished products to generate foam.

Imparting a pleasant freshness to the skin.

Breaking down the mechanical strength of hair fibers so that they can be removed by mild scraping/rubbing.

Seeking to achieve an even skin surface by decreasing roughness or irregularities.

Rendering cosmetics unpalatable. Mostly added to cosmetics containing ethyl alcohol to make it unsuitable for ingestion.

Reducing perspiration.

Changing the chemical nature of another ingredient by adding oxygen (or removing hydrogen).

Preventing and or inhibiting the corrosion of the packaging material.

Giving the consistency of a gel (a semi-solid preparation with some elasticity) to a liquid preparation.

Replenishing the lipids of the hair or of the top layers of the skin.

Helping to eliminate the dead cells of the stratum corneum.

Generating pressure in an aerosol pack, expelling contents when the valve is opened. Some liquefied propellants can act…

Applied to other cosmetic components to make them more hydrophilic or hydrophobic, or to modify their physical/chemical…

Initiating and/or accelerating removal of the layers of dead skin cells from the skin surface.

Retarding the evaporation of water from the skin surface. Occlusives are generally lipids which tend to remain on the s…

Enhancing the flow properties of other ingredients without reacting chemically with them.

Helping distribute an insoluble solid in a liquid phase.

Reducing or eliminating hair intertwining due to hair surface alteration or damage and, thus, helping combing.

Facilitating the dispersion of solids in liquids. They function primarily by coating the solid through the process of a…

Controlling the pH of cosmetic products.

Tending to unite/bind/bond surfaces together.

Conditioning and enhancing the appearance of eyelashes. Improving the gloss or sheen of eyelashes, coating the eyelash …

Forming a hard structure that resembles the nail plate.

Darkening the skin with or without exposure to UV.

Imparting a nacreous appearance to cosmetics.

Helping another component (solute) to dissolve in a medium in which it is not normally soluble.

Applied to the skin, and stripped off quickly to remove hair. With epilation the entire hair is removed from the follic…

Helping to break down lipids, proteins, and polysaccharides into smaller components, usually by the action of enzymes.

Preventing and/or slowing down the evaporation of water from the skin surface.

Helping other ingredients that normally do not mix to dissolve or disperse in one another. Surfactants lower the surfac…