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Ingredient list analyzer
Paste any product’s INCI list and get a plain-English breakdown — actives, hydrators, fragrance, fillers — with what we don’t know said plainly instead of guessed.
CostFree
TimeUnder 1 min
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DataKept on device
Paste the full ingredient (INCI) list
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The science
How to actually read an INCI list
01
Ingredient lists follow INCI rules: everything above 1% concentration appears in descending order, and below 1% order is the manufacturer’s choice. That makes position a rough dose signal — the first five or six names are the formula, and a headline active listed after the preservative is present at a token amount. This analyzer groups a pasted list into functional families: actives, humectants, emollients, occlusives, cleansing agents, preservatives, fragrance, and base.
02
Two honest limits. Grouping is not a verdict — concentration and formulation decide what a product does, and a well-formulated "boring" list beats a poorly-formulated exotic one. And our dictionary covers the ~120 most common ingredients; what we don’t recognize we say plainly rather than guess, because a made-up classification is worse than none.
Reading tricks: what a label is trying to tell you
The 1% line is the skeleton key: preservatives (phenoxyethanol capped at 1%) mark roughly where it falls, and every ingredient after them sits at fairy-dust levels — including, often, the botanical the front label is named after. "Free-from" claims describe two dozen things a product lacks while the INCI shows what it has; this analyzer reads only the latter. Position of the headline active matters most: a niacinamide product with niacinamide in position three is dosed for effect; in position twelve, dosed for the label. And fragrance at the very end is still fragrance — allergen thresholds for sensitized skin sit below the 1% line.
FAQ
Common questions
What order are skincare ingredients listed in?+
Descending by concentration down to 1%; below 1% the order is arbitrary. Preservatives almost always sit near the 1% line, making them a useful landmark: anything after them is a low-dose ingredient.
Which ingredients should sensitive skin avoid?+
The most common culprits are fragrance (including "parfum" and essential-oil components like limonene and linalool) and drying alcohols high on the list. Individual triggers vary — patch testing beats any list.
Is alcohol in skincare always bad?+
No — fatty alcohols (cetyl, cetearyl, stearyl) are moisturizing emollients. The astringent ones are "alcohol denat"/ethanol, and even those are context-dependent: fine in many sunscreens, harsh in a toner for dry skin.
What percentage of an active do I need?+
The evidence-backed ranges: niacinamide 2–5%, vitamin C 10–20% (L-ascorbic), salicylic acid 0.5–2%, glycolic 5–10% for leave-ons, retinol 0.1–1%. Labels rarely state them — position relative to the preservative is your proxy.
Are long ingredient lists bad?+
No — emulsions need scaffolding, and a 30-ingredient list can be 22 texture-and-stability entries doing honest work. Judge the first third and the allergen tail, not the count.