{"id":14,"date":"2026-06-25T21:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/2026\/06\/25\/how-to-read-an-ingredients-list\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T21:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:35:24","slug":"how-to-read-an-ingredients-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/2026\/06\/25\/how-to-read-an-ingredients-list\/","title":{"rendered":"How to read an ingredients list without a chemistry degree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An ingredients list is one of the few honest things on a cosmetic box, because the order is regulated even when the marketing is not. Four rules will get you most of the way to reading one properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Order tells you the concentration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ingredients are listed by descending weight down to one percent, after which the manufacturer may list them in any order. So an active in position two is doing real work, and the same active in position nineteen is almost certainly there to be printed on the front of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Latin names are not a warning sign<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Botanical ingredients are listed under their INCI name, which is usually Latin. Chamomilla Recutita is chamomile. Simmondsia Chinensis is jojoba. A long word is not a synthetic one, and a short one is not automatically safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Watch the word &#8220;fragrance&#8221;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fragrance, or parfum, can legally stand in for dozens of undisclosed compounds, and it is the most common cause of contact reactions in skincare. If your skin is reactive, this is the first word to look for and the easiest one to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Preservatives are the good guys<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A water-based product with no preservative system is a product growing bacteria. What matters is which preservative and at what level, not whether one is present at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Order matters, latin names are not a red flag, and &#8220;fragrance&#8221; is doing more work than any other word on the box. A practical guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12,10,7],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rituals","tag-ingredients","tag-organic","tag-sensitive-skin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demos.canvaswp.com\/beauty-kit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}