Key takeaways
- Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration down to 1%.
- Below 1%, order is arbitrary — so the tail of the list tells you very little.
- The first five ingredients usually determine texture, feel and cost.
The INCI list is the only part of a cosmetic label that is standardised across markets. Once you can read it, you can compare two products in a shop in under a minute.
The first rule is order. Ingredients appear in descending concentration until you reach 1%, after which the manufacturer may list them in any order. That means the top five ingredients are the product, and everything after the preservative is usually a trace claim.
The second rule is that water comes first in most emulsions. If aqua is the first ingredient, you are looking at an O/W emulsion; the second and third ingredients tell you whether it will feel light or rich — glycerin and butylene glycol for light, fatty alcohols and esters for rich.
The third rule is that “parfum” or “fragrance” is a legal black box. It can represent dozens of undeclared compounds and is the most common cause of contact allergy. Fragrance-free products are not necessarily odourless, but they carry less risk.
Finally, do not read actives by position alone. A peptide at 0.01% may be efficacious while a plant extract at 2% may be decorative. Ask the supplier for the use level and the supporting data — a serious one will answer.
Reference: EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009, Annexes
