With the sheer number of skincare products landing on shelves each month, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
Once you decide which type of product you need to add to your routine – for example, cleanser or moisturiser – then it’s about choosing one from the huge number available.
Looking for key ingredients proven to help improve skin can help, but sometimes what’s written on the bottle or packaging can be misleading.
For example, even though two products can say “contains Vitamin C for brightening,” the percentage used in each can be wildly different, leading to differences in efficacy and even the way your skin will tolerate and respond to them.
Having a good look at the ingredients labels can help provide some clues.
Now, one beauty founder has shared her advice on how to better understand the labels of the products you are considering.
Mukti is a cosmetic formulator, skin therapist, author and founder of Mukti Organics. Her easy hack involves ‘mentally dividing the label into thirds’ to allow you to quickly understand the potency of ingredients found in a skincare product.
Mentally ‘divide into three’
Mukti says the best way to understand a beauty product’s ingredients is to ‘mentally divide a product’s ingredients label into three sections’. The beauty founder says this method will allow you to understand what the product is mostly made, as well as give you an indication of the percentages of active, natural, or organic content in a product.
According to Mukti, the further down an ingredient appears on the list, the lower its percentage in the formulation. Mukti offers a clear breakdown of how to interpret the ingredient list:
- Top Third: This section lists the ingredients that constitute 80-95% of the product. It includes water (aqua), oils, actives, emulsifiers, and surfactants. The ingredients in the top third of the list are typically written in order ranging from highest percentage to lowest.
- Middle Third: This section accounts for about 4-12% of the entire product and generally includes key actives. Products with significant levels of active ingredients should generally feature these ingredients closer to the middle of the list.
- Final Third: This section makes up around 1-4% of the product and consists of preservatives, fragrances, stabilizers, and label claims. Ingredients present at a concentration of less than 1% can be listed in any order.
Mukti suggests to carefully examine the ingredient’s position on the product label.
“Ingredients are typically listed in descending order by volume,” she notes. “Water (or ‘aqua’) is frequently listed at the top, followed by silicone fillers such as cyclopentasiloxane or dimethicone. These products are commonly found in discount pharmacies and supermarkets.”
“Companies may prominently feature trending ingredients on the front of their product packaging to attract consumers,” Mukti explains.
“However, upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that these ingredients are often included in minuscule quantities compared to the overall formulation.”
In many cases, the amount is so negligible that the purported beneficial effects of these ingredients may be virtually insignificant.
For those overwhelmed by the multitude of ingredients, Mukti recommends focusing on key actives known for their efficacy.
“Ingredients like Vitamin C, retinol, and niacinamide have well-documented benefits and are worth looking out for,” she advises. “But it’s equally important to ensure these actives are in a formulation that is stable and can be effectively absorbed by the skin.”
The founder, who started her brand as a single mum and spent years understanding formulation nitty-gritty, believes you don’t need a long list of ingredients to achieve good skin health.
The creator of popular organic products like the brand’s Mukti Hyaluronic Marine Serum and Mukti 2-in-1 Resurfacing Exfoliant has also written a book, Truth in Beauty, as a resource for helping decode what’s available out there.
