Lanolin is a totally natural emollient which has a lipid (oil) profile very similar to sebum (skin oil), and therefore contributes moisture to the stratum cornuem (outer layer of the skin).
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Ingredients overview
Deionized Water, Glycerine, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Lanolin, Sorbitol, Phenoxyethanol, Triethanolamine, Chlorphenesin, Carbomer, Fragrance, Tocopheryl Acetate, Disodium EDTA
Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>
Highlights
#alcohol-free
Alcohol Free
Key Ingredients
Antioxidant: Tocopheryl Acetate
Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerine
Other Ingredients
Antimicrobial/antibacterial: Chlorphenesin
Buffering: Triethanolamine
Chelating: Disodium EDTA
Emollient: Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Lanolin
Emulsifying: Cetearyl Alcohol, Lanolin
Moisturizer/humectant: Glycerine, Sorbitol
Perfuming: Fragrance
Preservative: Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin
Solvent: Deionized Water
Surfactant/cleansing: Cetearyl Alcohol, Lanolin
Viscosity controlling: Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid, Carbomer
Skim through
| Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deionized Water | solvent | ||
| Glycerine | skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | 0, 0 | superstar |
| Cetearyl Alcohol | emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | 1, 2 | |
| Stearic Acid | emollient, viscosity controlling | 0, 2-3 | |
| Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil | emollient | 0, 0 | goodie |
| Lanolin | emollient, emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | 0, 0-1 | |
| Sorbitol | moisturizer/humectant | 0, 0 | |
| Phenoxyethanol | preservative | ||
| Triethanolamine | buffering | 0, 2 | |
| Chlorphenesin | preservative, antimicrobial/antibacterial | ||
| Carbomer | viscosity controlling | 0, 1 | |
| Fragrance | perfuming | icky | |
| Tocopheryl Acetate | antioxidant | 0, 0 | |
| Disodium EDTA | chelating |
G & M Cosmetics Australian Lanolin Oil Moisturising Cream
Ingredients explainedDeionized Water
Also-called: Aqua;Water | What-it-does: solvent
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
Glycerine - superstar
Also-called: Glycerol;Glycerin | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
- A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
- A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
- Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
- Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
- High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin
Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>
Cetearyl Alcohol
What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, emulsion stabilising, surfactant/cleansing | Irritancy: 1 | Comedogenicity: 2
An extremely common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams and lotions. It also helps to stabilize oil-water mixes (emulsions), though it does not function as an emulsifier in itself. Its typical use level in most cream type formulas is 2-3%.
It’s a so-called fatty alcohol, a mix of cetyl and stearyl alcohol, other two emollient fatty alcohols. Though chemically speaking, it is alcohol (as in, it has an -OH group in its molecule), its properties are totally different from the properties of low molecular weight or drying alcohols such as denat. alcohol. Fatty alcohols have a long oil-soluble (and thus emollient) tailpart that makes them absolutelynon-drying and non-irritating and are totally ok for the skin.
Stearic Acid
What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2-3
A common multi-tasker fatty acid. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), gives body to cream type products and helps to stabilize water and oilmixes (aka emulsions).
Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil - goodie
Also-called: Sunflower Oil | What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
Sunflower does not need a big intro as you probably use it in the kitchen as cooking oil, or you munch on the seeds as a healthy snack or you adore its big, beautifulyellow flower during the summer - or you do all of these and probably even more. And by even more we mean putting it all overyour face as sunflower oil is one of the most commonly used plant oils in skincare.
It’s a real oldie: expressed directly from the seeds, the oil is used not for hundreds but thousands of years. According to The National Sunflower Association, there is evidencethat both the plant and its oil were used by American Indians in the area of Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC. Do the math: it's more than 5000 years – definitely an oldie.
Our intro did get pretty big after all (sorry for that), so let's get to the point finally: sunflower oil - similar to other plant oils - is a great emollient that makes the skin smooth and nice and helps to keep it hydrated. It also protects the surface of the skin and enhances the damaged or irritated skin barrier. Leslie Bauman notes in Cosmetic Dermatology that one application of sunflower oil significantly speeds up the recovery of the skin barrier within an hour and sustains the results 5 hours after using it.
It's also loaded withfatty acids(mostly linoleic (50-74%) and oleic (14-35%)). The unrefined version(be sure to use that on your skin!) is especially high in linoleic acid that is great even for acne-prone skin. Its comedogen index is 0, meaning that it's pretty much an all skin-type oil.
Truth be told, there are many great plant oils and sunflower oil is definitely one of them.
Lanolin
What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-1
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Sorbitol
What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It's a sweet tasting sugar substitute that helps your skin to hold onto water when used in cosmetic products. It also helps to thicken up products and give them a bit more slip.
Phenoxyethanol
What-it-does: preservative
It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).
It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
Triethanolamine
What-it-does: buffering | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2
It’s a little helper ingredient that helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be just right. It’s very alkaline (you know the opposite of being very acidic): a 1% solution has a pH of around 10.
It does not have the very best safety reputation but in general, you do not have to worry about it.
What is true is that if a product contains so-called N-nitrogenating agents (e.g.: preservatives like 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol, 5-Bromo-5-Nitro- 1,3-Dioxane or sodium nitrate - so look out for things with nitro, nitra in the name) that together with TEA can form some not nice carcinogenic stuff (that is called nitrosamines). But with proper formulation that does not happen, TEA in itself is not a bad guy.
But let’s assume a bad combination of ingredients were used and the nitrosamines formed. :( Even in that case you are probably fine because as far as we know it cannot penetrate the skin.
But to be on the safe side, if you see Triethanolamine in an INCI and also something with nitra, nitro in the name of it just skip the product, that cannot hurt.
Chlorphenesin
What-it-does: preservative, antimicrobial/antibacterial
A little helper ingredient that works as a preservative. It works againstbacteria and some species of fungi and yeast. It's often combined with IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol.
Carbomer
What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1
A big molecule created from repeated subunits (a polymer of acrylic acid) that magically converts a liquidinto a nice gel formula. It usually has to be neutralized with a base (such as sodium hydroxide) for the thickening to occur and it creates viscous, clear gels that also feel nice and non-tacky on the skin. No wonder, it is a very popular and common ingredient. Typically used at 1% or less in most formulations.
Fragrance - icky
Also-called: Fragrance, Parfum;Parfum/Fragrance | What-it-does: perfuming
Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. Fragrance in the US and parfum in the EU is a generic term on the ingredient list that is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average (but it can have as much as 200 components!).
If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it.
Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. It’s definitely a smart thing to avoid with sensitive skin (and fragrance of any type - natural is just as allergic as synthetic, if not worse!).
Tocopheryl Acetate
Also-called: Vitamin E Acetate | What-it-does: antioxidant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0
It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here. This one is the so-called esterified version.
According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life, it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin and may not have the same awesome photoprotective effects as pure Vit E.
Disodium EDTA
What-it-does: chelating
Super common little helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.
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Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more] A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more] A super common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams. [more] A common multi-tasker fatty acid that works as an emollient, thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more] Sunflower Oil - it's a great emollient that protects & enhances the skin barrier. [more] It's a sweet tasting sugar substitute that helps your skin to hold onto water when used in cosmetic products. It also helps to thicken up products and give them a bit more slip. [more] Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more] Helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be right. It’s very alkaline. [more] A little helper ingredient that works as a preservative. It works against bacteria and some species of fungi and yeast. [more] A handy white powder that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula. [more] The generic term for nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. It is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average. [more] A form of vitamin E that works as an antioxidant. Compared to the pure form it's more stable, has longer shelf life, but it's also more poorly absorbed by the skin. [more] Super common little helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. [more] what‑it‑does solvent what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing irritancy,com. 1, 2 what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling irritancy,com. 0, 2-3 what‑it‑does emollient irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does emollient | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing irritancy,com. 0, 0-1 what‑it‑does moisturizer/humectant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does preservative what‑it‑does buffering irritancy,com. 0, 2 what‑it‑does preservative | antimicrobial/antibacterial what‑it‑does viscosity controlling irritancy,com. 0, 1 what‑it‑does perfuming what‑it‑does antioxidant irritancy,com. 0, 0 what‑it‑does chelating
