Only few of us consumers read about the ingredients of cosmetic products before buying them. It is very important to have thorough knowledge about the cosmetic ingredients.
Every ingredient has their own story…….
Ingredients of cosmetic products are divided into following groups:
1. Functional Ingredients: Functional ingredients make up the main part of any cosmetic product, without these ingredients products are incomplete. We can use them solely as a cosmetic product but it is easy and convenient to use these actives or functional components with other ingredients. These include detergents, conditioning agents, moisturizers, astringents, colorants (make-up products) and other performance ingredients or active agents. It is necessary that any cosmetic product should have at least one functional ingredient.
2. Thickeners: Thickeners are used for increasing the viscosity of the product. They also improve stability, aesthetics, appearance, applicability and to modify the rheology of product. They can be natural, derived from natural or synthetic. Common thickeners are gums, carbomers, waxes, etc.
3. Vehicle / Diluents: Diluents are necessary in all cosmetics products. Functional ingredients may cause irritation if used in concentrated form and also to overcome other problems such as spreading, penetration, delivery and to up hold other ingredients with each other diluents are used. In cream or lotion base, water is the cheapest and evergreen diluent. Likewise, in powder product talc, oil-based products mostly mineral oils or carrier oils are used as vehicle. Alcohol, glycerin, butylene glycol, propylene glycol are examples of some other diluents.
4. Preservatives: Preservatives are the chemical agents which are used in cosmetics for the prevention of product from losing its efficacy, functionality, stability, etc. Preservatives increase the shelf life of product, they vary from product to product and formulation to formulation they are depends on the compatibility of other ingredients. Following are some example of preservatives
Anti-microbials (phenoxyethanol, DMDM hydantoin, sorbic acid, methyl paraben)
Anti-oxidant (BHT, BHA)
Buffering agent (Citric acid, Sodium hydroxide)
Chelating agent (EDTA)
5. Perfume: Many ingredients are very beneficial to skin but they have bad odor or sometimes interaction of ingredients generate unpleasant odor, so for masking bad odor, to make product pleasant, calming, attractive almost all cosmetics product contain perfume. Perfume may be natural or synthetic. Some natural perfumes are rose oil, lavender oil, lemon oil, etc. example of synthetic perfumes are musk-ketone, heliotropin, etc.
6. Additives: These types of ingredients are used depending on the type of product formulation. Following are some common examples such as emollient, stabilizers, colorants, emulsifiers, solubilizer, etc.
7. Claims: Every product need the unique story for marketing and to attract customers. Concentration of such ingredients is very low. Herbal extracts in cosmetics are the example of these claiming ingredients in which products contain the herbal extracts in minimum concentrations and claims such as "Natural Products" or "Herbal Products" can be made.
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