How to Decipher the Ingredients in Your Cosmetics

If you ever wonder just what makes a foundation glide on like silk, an eye shadow iridescent or your lipstick ruby red, look no further than the product's packaging. Such disclosure is mandated by many governments, and gives you the opportunity to weed out products whose ingredients may be incompatible with your skin. It may read like a chemistry report, but it can be deciphered.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• labels

1. Check out the ingredients in your blushes, lipsticks and eye shadows and you're likely to find color names preceded by F, D & C. These letters refer to color batches that were approved by the FDA prior to insertion into the product.

2. Look for products that contain a lake, which inhibit the bleeding or running of color. Ingredients suffixed in parabens are preservatives, which guarantee your product a longer shelf life.

3. Consider that key ingredients in foundation, powder, blush and shadows allow the product to glide smoothly over the skin. Talc, or magnesium silicate, as well as dimethicone and mica promote this action.

4. Remember the most effective sunscreens you may find in your base or powder, include titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. Oil and water are often found in foundation, and when mixed and blended well offer good coverage and a clean finish.

5. Keep in mind that many cosmetic companies are adding vitamins and essential oils to makeup preparations and spinning them as treatment makeup. The vitamin C, A or E or acne fighting agents that companies do add to cosmetic preparations are not added in quantities that can significantly effect skin texture.

Tips & Warnings

• Ingredients are listed in order of concentration. Known irritants that are listed last may not be concentrated enough to cause problems.
• The FDA may approve an ingredient, however this does not mean that it is not potentially harmful or will not promote irritation. For example, compounds that give makeup color, often derived from coal-tar, are proven irritants and may be carcinogenic.
• Beware of labels that say hypoallergenic, dermatologist tested and natural. Not that such claims are untrue, just remember in spite of these things a product still might contain ingredients that irritate your skin.

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