A Cosmetic Chemist's Perspective on Why Ingredients Lists Decoding Can Be Misleading

As SWRL's Head of R&D, I've analyzed thousands of ingredient lists throughout my career. What I've noticed is how differently I evaluate them now compared to my early days in cosmetic chemistry. This evolution has shaped how we approach formulation transparency at SWRL - with honesty about what matters and what doesn't when it comes to your skincare.

The INCI Analysis Challenge

Sometimes, I'm asked to analyze the INCI list of a product and determine whether it's "good" or "bad" or worth buying. Reflecting on how I approach this task now, compared to how I did it at the start of my career as a cosmetic formulator, I realize that my perspective has changed and I have a very different approach to this task now. So let's explore the benefits and drawbacks of "dissecting" an INCI list.

As professional cosmetic formulators we have knowledge and tools to understand not just individual INCI list materials but also understand and find possible interaction and synergies between single ingredients. In many cases chemists can identify mixtures, active or functional components, and stabilization processes, and deconstruct the product to classify its ingredients into the categories that make it a complete cosmetic formulation. So in the end it is possible for a formulator to replicate a product and make a "dupe" (I am not going to talk about ethics of it) by just having an INCI list and in the perfect case a benchmark product.

What You Can Learn From an INCI List

However, is it accurate to deconstruct an INCI list into single ingredients to evaluate a product's efficacy and quality from a user's perspective? In some ways, yes. You can receive a lot of information from it. For example:

• Ingredients present in the product: You can see all the ingredients present in the product in the descending order until 1% mark (and after that arranged in any order). Or to see if all the components advertised in the product claims are inside the product and if it's included in the meaningful amounts.
• Sensitivities or allergies: You can identify ingredients you might be prone to reacting to.
• Personal preferences: You might avoid certain ingredients due to sustainability concerns, their chemical nature, or lifestyle, cultural, or religious preferences.
• Desired ingredients: You can spot beneficial ingredients that align with your skin type, concerns, or preferences. Or, you might identify trending ingredients from social media (though whether they're worth your time or money is another question entirely).

The Limitations of Label Reading

That said, judging a product solely by its INCI list often oversimplifies its potential benefits or drawbacks.

Cosmetic products are formulated with ingredients that give the product its form and stabilize it. Preservatives ensure safety for long-term use, active ingredients provide efficacy, and other components contribute to sensory characteristics like texture, spreadability, and scent. This is an oversimplified view, as not all these ingredient types appear in every product, but it illustrates the complexity of formulation.

I remember working on an early SWRL prototype that looked "cleaner" on paper with fewer ingredients. The formula felt luxurious and performed well in initial testing, but within three months, its efficacy had degraded significantly. This taught me an important lesson - sometimes additional stabilizers and functional ingredients, while making the INCI list longer, are essential for delivering consistent results over time.

The Hidden Purpose of "Chemical-Looking" Ingredients

Some ingredients listed on an INCI may not have been added intentionally to the formula as standalone components. Instead, they may be present to stabilize or enhance the efficacy of other ingredients, such as antioxidants, preservatives, or stabilizers that protect active or structural raw materials or penetration enhancers which make ingredients more effective. In the final formulation, these may exist only as trace residues, but they are still required to be listed on the INCI.

Take our Hydrating Essence, for example. If you looked only at the INCI list, you might question why we include Phenoxyethanol. What's not immediately apparent is that this preservative system is carefully calibrated to protect our Tuscan snail mucin without compromising its efficacy - something I spent three months perfecting in our lab.

So for example if the formula uses lots of different active or structural ingredients it can look that there is a lot of "chemistry" in Your product. Which is a funny term, because all ingredients - natural or synthetic - are made of chemical compounds. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, a cosmetic product is not simply a mixture of active compounds; it needs to have integrity, be stable, and, most importantly, be safe throughout its shelf life. Achieving this often requires adding structural ingredients, which can make the INCI list appear more complex than it actually is and sometimes in the customer's eyes it can look very complicated and unnecessarily.

Looking Beyond the List

And in my opinion with so much contradictory information circulating online, we sometimes miss the opportunity to use safe and effective products because we focus on a single detail in the larger chemical puzzle.

At SWRL, we approach ingredient transparency differently. Instead of marketing "free-from" claims or oversimplified "clean" labels, we focus on sharing why each ingredient serves a purpose in our formulations. We believe you deserve to understand not just what's in your products, but how they work together to deliver results.

So my advice is to look for what's right for your skin type, prioritize scientifically proven active ingredients, and ensure the product has an effective preservation and stabilization system for safety. Always remember that the formulation as a whole determines product performance - not just individual ingredients. And at the end of the day INCI list can't tell You if this product will be right for Your skin or not - You need to try it (safely - by always doing a patch test on the small amount of the skin first).

I'd love to hear your questions about specific ingredients or formulation approaches. Drop them in the comments, and I'll address the most common ones in my next journal entry.

P.S. And perhaps it's a good idea to have a cosmetic chemist as a friend. 😊