Understanding Cosmetics Label

May 8, 2020

Written by Eblouir Labs

May 8, 2020

Written by Eblouir Labs

In this modern era when thousands of brands are introducing their products daily, it’s getting quite harder for a person to differentiate between good and bad ones. With every passing time, skincare companies are making product labels so fancy and appealing that one can easily fall into trap of finding it something, but that never means that every product out there is efficient and safer for you.

To know what your product holds and what’s actually inside it, one needs to have complete knowledge of label reading rather than trusting just that one attractive and eye-catching name.

Here’s a list of some basic things that necessarily have to be present there on your new product.

Product Name (or Brand Name):

It could serve two of the purposes; one is the identification of the product for further use in the future if it proves to be effective and the other is it could help you make perfect decisions about your purchase instead of blind ones. An important point is that the cosmetics industry doesn’t use names that come from the IUPAC chemical naming system; instead, they come from the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI). There are numerous websites you could find to understand the complete concept of INCI.

Ingredient List:

Every product needs to have their ingredients listed. All the ingredients having a concentration of more than 1% are listed in descending order. And then all other ingredients having a concentration of less than 1% can be written in random order. Know that there are Emollients, Humectants, Antioxidants, Binders, Exfoliates, Absorbents, Emulsifiers, Surfactants, Solvents, Thickeners, Stabilizers, Preservatives, Fragrances, Buffers and Anti-Aging agents present in different ratios in these products.

Preservatives and fragrances are usually less than 1%. So now you can guess the number of ingredients listed on the back of your product.

Product Volume/Weight:

It is usually written under the brand name or product name and is mentioned mostly in fluid ounces or milliliters.

Symbols:

Several symbols could be found on a product and it seriously needs another article to cover this full topic. But we’ll talk about the most common ones here.

Open Jar Icon: This indicates the period after opening (pao) and the number on it tells us about the time during which this product could be used after opening. Some may also know it by “expiry date” or “best before use”.
Book: It refers to the attached or enclosed information. Present in the form of a leaflet or tag inside packaging if the original product size is too small.
The ‘e’ symbol: It implies that the brand has compliance with average fill requirements. (Average System).
Bunny: “Cruelty-free”. Packaging goods having this symbol declares that no experiments on animals were performed during the manufacture of the following product.

Understanding Cosmetics Label

Product Name (or Brand Name):

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