Labelling

Whether it’s a drugstore moisturizer or a $200 eye cream from an upscale spa, the first thing you need to look at for any cosmetic product you buy isn’t the claims or product description—it’s the ingredient list.

Understanding ingredient lists isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone. How can you tell which ingredients are good for you, which aren’t, and what about those long, technical names? We’ve been deciphering these lists for years, and have the tools you need to become cosmetic-ingredient savvy.

Tips for Understanding Ingredient Lists

Every skincare or makeup product should have its full ingredients listed on the packaging. If not listed on the actual tube or jar, it might be on the outer carton (also check for peel-back or “accordion-style” stickers, which are common on makeup products that come in small containers). Regardless, it should be somewhere you can easily find it—you shouldn’t have to dig for the information online or elsewhere.

Once you’ve located the list, the next thing to do is to find out what the ingredients are, and begin to learn about the purpose each serves in the product. Some ingredients, like water, retinol, or glycerine, are easy enough to understand. But what about cetearyl glucoside, tocopherol acetate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, and others?

Our Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary is a great resource, containing the definitions of hundreds of skincare and makeup ingredients—and you can access it on our website from your mobile device. It includes the technical as well as non-technical names of ingredients, what their purpose is, descriptions of how they work, and research supporting their use in cosmetics. Once you spend some time there, you’ll become familiar with the most common ingredients and be able to identify them quickly.

Perhaps most important is knowing which ingredients can irritate skin. Many makeup and skincare products contain irritants, so stay sharp when looking out for these!

Active Versus Inactive Ingredients

In most cases, ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration—in other words, the ingredients present in the highest concentrations top the list, and so on. Then there’s a group of cosmetics that are considered over-the-counter drugs (like sunscreens and anti-acne products), whose ingredients are listed as “active” or “inactive.”

An active ingredient is one approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to perform a specific function for a specific condition. Examples are titanium dioxide for sun protection, and benzoyl peroxide for acne. Active ingredients are listed, along with their percentages, a short description of how they work in a product, and how the product that contains them should be applied. “Inactive” ingredients aren’t really inactive per se, as they provide support for the active ingredient or lend cosmetic benefits like hydration.

Note: There’s one aspect of products with active ingredients that can make it a bit tricky to understand exactly how much of each ingredient you’re getting from the product. In the United States, if a label has active ingredients, it’s acceptable to list the inactive ingredients alphabetically, instead of in order of concentration. Not many brands do this, but some do, which makes it more challenging, especially if you’re looking to avoid higher amounts of specific ingredients.

With these tips in mind, you’re now ready to do your own fact-finding to select the products that will do the most good for your skin!

PERIOD AFTER OPENING (PAO)

The open jar symbol tells you how long the product is good to be used after the first opening. The period is indicated with the number of months the product is safe to use, followed by the letter "M," which means "months." For example, when you see a cosmetic label with "24M", this means the product can be used for up to 24 months after opening. 

BEST BEFORE END (BBE)

If the product has a lifespan of fewer than 30 months, it must have a BBE date on the label, symbolized by the hourglass. The hourglass symbol can be followed by the date or the words "Best before end of," abbreviated to "BBE." The PAO symbol is sometimes associated with Best Before End (BBE). Best Before date is named shelf life, meaning how long that product can be stored without opening. The PAO date should be calculated within the period of Best Before Date. When a product passes the Best Before Date, it means the product is Expired, so it can't be used anymore, even if the product was not opened.

MOBIUS LOOP

This symbol indicates that the container is recyclable. There are variations of the logo to communicate information about the container. If the character is inside a solid circle, the packaging itself is made from recycled material. If the symbol is inside a solid circle and has a percentage inside the logo or next to it, the container is made from that stated percentage of recycled material. Suppose there's a number inside the triangle and the letter below. In that case, this indicates the particular resin used in making the container's plastic to help the recycling process.

GREEN DOT

This symbol is used in Europe to show that the company pays a recovery and recycling organization to oversee ecologically responsible packaging waste management. This does not necessarily mean that the packaging is recyclable or is made from recyclable material.

CRUELTY-FREE LABELS

The "Leaping Bunny" symbol indicates that the company that manufactured the product does not perform testing on animals and conforms to the standard set by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics (CCIC) and Cruelty-Free International (CFI).

The "Not Tested on Animals" symbol, also featuring a rabbit, communicates that the company manufacturing the product satisfies the Australia-based group Choose Cruelty-Free standards and has been deemed cruelty-free across the entire corporation, including its parent or subsidiaries. (Products bearing this symbol have not been tested on animals. Any animal-derived ingredients they contain have been ethically sourced.)

The "PETA Cruelty-Free Bunny" indicates that a company has submitted a statement to PETA asserting that they do not perform testing on animals. There's also a vegan version of the logo available to companies who state that all their products are vegan.

ORGANIC AND NATURAL LABELS

These symbols indicate that the ingredients of these products come from organic cultures. These are usually used for natural products. 

The Ecocert Organic symbol is from a nongovernmental certification program that evaluates the organic contents of products. If the emblem states Ecocert Organic, then at least 95% of its plant-based ingredients and at least 10% of its components are organic. In contrast, if the product has an Ecocert Natural symbol, that means at least 50% of its plant-based ingredients. At least 5% of all its components are organic.

The COSMEBIO symbol is from the French organization that stands for "Biologique" (the French word for organic) and signifies that the product contains at least 95% natural ingredients and that organic farming accounts for at least 10% of the total products and 95% of the plant ingredients. The ECO symbol stands for "ecologique" (the French word for natural) and tells consumers that the product contains at least 95% natural ingredients and that organic farming accounted for at least 5% of the total product and 50% of the plant ingredients.

For USA products, look for the USDA Organic symbol. For the European products, look for the green leaf with stars.

E-MARK

A lowercase "e" is used in the European Union, which indicates that the average volume or weight of the products is the same as the number on the label. When there's a tiny lowercase "e" on your product, that means that the average volume or weight of the products is the same as what's listed on the label, as per European Union law.

REFER TO INSERT

A hand pointing at a book means information or instructions on a leaflet, booklet, or another insert that can't be listed on the primary label. The data can be things like an ingredients list, usage instructions, or warnings. This symbol is beneficial for smaller cosmetic products since they don't have enough space on their container to list all the product information.