Gel cleanser for oily and acne prone skin.
Uploaded by: promking on
Ingredients overview
Aqua, Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate, Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate, Acrylates/Steareth-20 Methacrylate Crosspolymer, Centella Asiatica Extract, Potassium Cocoate, Salicylic Acid, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Lauryl Hydroxysultaine, Erythritol, Caprylyl Glycol, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Chloride, Disodium EDTA, Glycosyl Trehalose, Hydroxypropyl Cyclodextrin, Aroma, Phenoxyethanol
Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>
Highlights
#alcohol-free
Alcohol Free
Key Ingredients
Anti-acne: Salicylic Acid
Antioxidant: Centella Asiatica Extract
Exfoliant: Salicylic Acid
Soothing: Centella Asiatica Extract, Salicylic Acid
Other Ingredients
Buffering: Potassium Hydroxide
Chelating: Disodium EDTA
Emollient: Caprylyl Glycol
Emulsifying: Potassium Cocoate
Moisturizer/humectant: Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate, Centella Asiatica Extract, Erythritol, Caprylyl Glycol
Preservative: Salicylic Acid, Phenoxyethanol
Solvent: Aqua
Surfactant/cleansing: Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate, Potassium Cocoate, Sodium Lauroamphoacetate, Lauryl Hydroxysultaine
Viscosity controlling: Lauryl Hydroxysultaine, Sodium Chloride
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqua | solvent | ||
| Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate | surfactant/cleansing | ||
| Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate | moisturizer/humectant | ||
| Acrylates/Steareth-20 Methacrylate Crosspolymer | |||
| Centella Asiatica Extract | soothing, antioxidant, moisturizer/humectant | goodie | |
| Potassium Cocoate | emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | ||
| Salicylic Acid | exfoliant, anti-acne, soothing, preservative | superstar | |
| Sodium Lauroamphoacetate | surfactant/cleansing | ||
| Lauryl Hydroxysultaine | surfactant/cleansing, viscosity controlling | ||
| Erythritol | moisturizer/humectant | ||
| Caprylyl Glycol | moisturizer/humectant, emollient | ||
| Potassium Hydroxide | buffering | ||
| Sodium Chloride | viscosity controlling | ||
| Disodium EDTA | chelating | ||
| Glycosyl Trehalose | |||
| Hydroxypropyl Cyclodextrin | |||
| Aroma | |||
| Phenoxyethanol | preservative |
Glad2Glow Centella Salicylic Acid Acne Gel Cleanser
Ingredients explainedAqua
Also-called: Water | What-it-does: solvent
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing
An amino-acidbased cleansing agent that is described as extremelymild and having outstanding foamability.It can also reduce the harshness and leftover of strongersurfactants such as SLS or fatty acid soaps.
Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Acrylates/Steareth-20 Methacrylate Crosspolymer
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Centella Asiatica Extract - goodie
Also-called: Gotu Kola, Tiger Grass | What-it-does: soothing, antioxidant, moisturizer/humectant
Centella Asiatica - or sometimes also called Gotu Kola or Cica - has been used in folk medicine for hundreds of years. It’s traditionally used to improve small wounds, burns and scratches and it’s also a well known anti-inflammatory agent for eczema.
Recently science has taken an interest in Gotu Kola as well and it turns out it really has many active compounds with several benefits. Just for hard-core geeks, the main biologically active compounds are pentacyclic triterpenoid saponins calledasiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic and madecassic acid (also called centellosides).
One of the biological activities of thecentellosides isto be able to stimulate GAGs (glycosaminoglycans - polysaccharides that are part of the liquidy stuff between our skin cells), and especially hyaluronic acid synthesis in our skin. This is probably one of the reasons why Centella Asiatica Extract has nice skin moisturizingproperties that was confirmed by a 25 people, four weeks study along with Centella's anti-inflammatory effects.
Madecassoside can also help in burn wound healing through increasing antioxidant activity and enhancing collagen synthesis. Asiaticoside was shown to increase antioxidant levels on rats skin when applied at 0.2%.
Centella Asiatica also often shows up in products that try to treat cellulite or striae. Of course, it cannot make a miracle but it might have some effect via regulating microcirculation and normalizing the metabolism in the cells of connective tissues.
Bottom line: Gotu Kola is a great plant ingredient with proven wound healing, anti-inflammatory,and antioxidant properties. Nice to spot on any ingredient list.
Potassium Cocoate
What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Salicylic Acid - superstar
Also-called: BHA | What-it-does: exfoliant, anti-acne, soothing, preservative
- It's one of the gold standard ingredients for treating problem skin
- It can exfoliate skin both on the surface and in the pores
- It's a potent anti-inflammatory agent
- It's more effective for treating blackheads than acne
- For acne combine it with antibacterial agents like benzoyl peroxide or azelaic acid
Read all the geeky details about Salicylic Acid here >>
Sodium Lauroamphoacetate
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing
A mildamphoteric (contains both a negative and a positive ion in its water-loving head part) surfactant that gives a nice foam and also has the unique ability to reduce irritation from other co-surfactants.
Lauryl Hydroxysultaine
What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, viscosity controlling
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Erythritol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Caprylyl Glycol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, emollient, deodorant
It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. At the same time, it also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives, such as the nowadays super commonly used phenoxyethanol.
The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product. It's a popular duo.
Potassium Hydroxide
What-it-does: buffering
It's a very alkaline stuff that helps to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to be just right. It's similar to the more often used sodium hydroxideand pretty much the same of what we wrote there applies here too.
Sodium Chloride
Also-called: Salt | What-it-does: viscosity controlling
Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. Normal, everyday table salt.
If (similar to us) you are in the weird habit of reading the label on your shower gel while taking a shower, you might have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the ingredient list. The reason for this is that salt acts as a fantastic thickener in cleansing formulas created with ionic cleansing agents(aka surfactants) such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture.
If you are into chemistry (if not, we understand, just skip this paragraph), the reason is that electrolytes (you know, the Na+ and Cl- ions) screen the electrostatic repulsion between the head groups of ionic surfactants and thus support the formation of long shaped micelles (instead of spherical ones) that entangle like spaghetti, and viola, a gel is formed. However, too much of it causes the phenomenon called "salting out", and the surfactant solution goes runny again.
Other than that, salt also works as an emulsion stabilizer inwater-in-oil emulsions, that is when water droplets are dispersed in the outer oil (or silicone) phase. And last but not least, when salt is right at the first spot of the ingredient list (and is not dissolved), the product is usually a body scrub where salt is thephysical exfoliating agent.
Disodium EDTA
What-it-does: chelating
Super common little helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.
Glycosyl Trehalose
What-it-does: emulsion stabilising
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Hydroxypropyl Cyclodextrin
A type of bucket or donut-shaped molecule with a water-loving outer side and an oil-loving inner side that is used mostly to encapsulate other actives in cosmetics.
Aroma
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
You may also want to take a look at...
Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more] An amino-acidbased cleansing agent that is described as extremelymild and having outstanding foamability.It can also reduce the harshness and leftover of strongersurfactants such as SLS or fatty acid soaps. [more] Centella Asiatica - or sometimes also called Gotu Kola or Cica - has been used in folk medicine for hundreds of years. It’s traditionally used to improve small wounds, burns and scratches and it’s also a well known anti-inflammatory agent for eczema.Recently science has taken an interest in Gotu Kola as well and it turns out it really has many active compounds with several benefits. [more] One of the gold standard ingredients for treating problem skin. It can exfoliate skin both on the surface and in the pores and it's a potent anti-inflammatory agent. [more] A mildamphoteric (contains both a negative and a positive ion in its water-loving head part) surfactant that gives a nice foam and also has the unique ability to reduce irritation from other co-surfactants. A handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel and also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives. [more] It's a very alkaline stuff that helps to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to be just right. [more] Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. Normal, everyday table salt.If (similar to us) you are in the weird habit of reading the label on your shower gel while taking a shower, you might have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the ingredient list. [more] Super common little helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. [more] A type of bucket or donut-shaped molecule with a water-loving outer side and an oil-loving inner side that is used mostly to encapsulate other actives in cosmetics. [more] Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more] what‑it‑does solvent what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does soothing | antioxidant | moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing what‑it‑does exfoliant | anti-acne | soothing | preservative what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing | viscosity controlling what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant | emollient what‑it‑does buffering what‑it‑does viscosity controlling what‑it‑does chelating what‑it‑does preservative
