Guide

How to read an ingredient label

The back of the bottle follows rules. Once you know five of them, the list starts talking.

The five rules

  1. Biggest first. Ingredients are listed from most to least, down to 1%. The first five usually make up most of the formula.
  2. Below 1%, any order. After the 1% line a brand may list ingredients in any order. That is why a star ingredient can sit near the end and still be doing its job, or be there for the label.
  3. The names are standard. Every ingredient has an INCI name. Water is “Aqua”; plants are listed by their Latin name, then the common name and the part, such as “Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter”.
  4. “Fragrance” or “Parfum” is many ingredients. One word can stand for dozens of components. In the EU, listed fragrance allergens must be named when they are above 0.001% in leave-on or 0.01% in rinse-off products, which is why you see linalool or limonene even in products scented only with essential oils: they are parts of those oils.
  5. “May contain” is for shades. A colour range can list every pigment used across the range after “May contain” or “+/-”. Your shade has some of them, not all.

Two more things worth knowing

  • Active ingredients come first on drugs. In the US, sunscreens and acne treatments are drugs. Their actives are listed separately with a percentage, above the other ingredients.
  • Stars and daggers are the brand's own. A mark such as “*organic” is the brand's statement unless a certifier's logo is on the pack.

Every ingredient has its own card, with what it is and what the evidence says: browse the ingredients.

The rules behind this