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Skincare ingredient checker
Paste any product’s INCI list: the checker names what each common ingredient does (actives, hydrators, emollients, preservatives) and flags fragrance and drying alcohols. What it does not recognize, it says plainly instead of guessing.
CostFree
TimeUnder 1 min
SignupNone
DataKept on device
Paste the full ingredient (INCI) list
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Scan any label with your phone. SkinPal tells you if it suits your skin before you pay for it.
What you unlock in the app
- Ingredient scannerKnow if a product suits you before you buy it
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- Full skin report cardSee what's good and what needs work, from acne to skin age
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- Progress trackingSee your before and after, week by week
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.
What this checker checks, and which checker to use instead
This page answers "what are these ingredients?": it sorts about 120 of the most common cosmetic ingredients into what they do, notes a few known pore-cloggers such as coconut oil and isopropyl myristate, and flags the two families most likely to sting or sensitize, fragrance and drying alcohols. It does not rate every ingredient for acne, yeast or pregnancy, because each of those needs its own source list.
For those questions, paste the same list into the checker built for it: the pore-clogging ingredient checker reads it against published comedogenic ratings, the fungal acne safe checker against the ingredients that feed malassezia, and the pregnancy-safe skincare checker against common avoid-in-pregnancy lists.
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 are these ingredients in my skincare?+
Paste the full list from the back of the pack or the product page. The checker sorts every ingredient it knows into actives, humectants, emollients, occlusives, cleansing agents, silicones, preservatives, fragrance, drying alcohols, colorants and base, each with a one-line note on what it does. The first five or six names are most of the formula; anything listed after the preservative is under 1%.
Does this check for pore-clogging, fungal acne or pregnancy ingredients?+
Only in passing: it notes a few known pore-cloggers. For a full check, paste the same list into the pore-clogging ingredient checker, the fungal acne safe checker or the pregnancy-safe skincare checker on this site; each reads the list against its own source.
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.