Master list of skincare active ingredients and impacts

[Luckingfovely]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and wondering if this holy grail exists?

A list of all skincare active ingredients and what their effects are. I used to be much better at this but seem to have lost track. I'm a huge fan of sole-purpose skincare but would like to use it more purposefully.

This is what I mean:

Hyaluronic Acid - Moisturising
Niacamide - For Blemishes
Retinol - Anti Aging

(For example only). Etc etc. Has anyone seen such a list? Or if not, could we create our own? I think it would be such a useful resource.

Have a look at Caroline Hirons Skin Rocks app. It’s free. Might have the info you want. Be warned there are literally thousands of products listed though. It’s a great resource.

Thanks @Peridot1. There's probably tons of info there but it's still a sales site and information is spread all over the place.

I'm thinking more a simple list of x1 does y, x2 does y2 etc. I'd be amazed if it doesn't exist already - but if not I'll start work on one!

Paula's choice ingredient catalogue precedes the brand, it's not very commercial and has always been the gold standard but it's like an encyclopaedia so more of a reference. More susccise versions exist that'll do overview of certain families of ingredients, like incidecoder.

There's not really a list because it would just be super long and a lot of ingredients do more than one thing, eg. Niacinamide is anti inflammatory, evens skin tones, moderates pore size, etc. Reducing it to blemishes wouldn't really cover it and how ingredients are spoken of by scientists/formulators is also very different to lay people and marketeers, eg. You might reach for hyaluronic acid if you're struggling with dryness and therefore it's seen as moisturising by some but it would be classified as a hydrating ingredient by others.

Oh do please! I used to be quite beauty savvy but there is so much out there now I have completely lost track of what does what.

even your list of 3 above is a help!

@botemp thanks for your wise words and I'll look at those two resources.

I appreciate that I may be oversimplifying a complex subject - but I don't think that means it shouldn't be done. Obviously it would tailored to the lay person - and given the wealth of marketing fluff around skincare, any effort to break through the crap and provide some basic, useful information can only be useful.

The Derm Collective website is good for this sort of thing. For example, this is their page in Vitamin C:

dermcollective.com/vitamin-c-for-skin/

Bit of a rant, but it really annoys me when beauty pundits simplify stuff about ingredients, e.g. 'Glycolic acid is for winkles, salicylic for spots and lactic for dry skin'. Glycolic is a humectant and salicylic can help build collagen!!

Thiamidol - patented ingredient that acts at the root cause of hyperpigmentation

Arbutin, Kojic Acid, other Resorcinol derivatives, such as B-Resorcinol, and Vitamin C and its derivatives - other active ingredients that are commonly used to treat hyperpigmentation, albeit with varying efficacy

@AbsolutePixels I hear you, and am typically a stickler for the detail!

But in this instance - do you see what I'm trying to get to? I know the whole skincare arena is complex. I know it is even more complicated by marketing fluff and claims.

But then how does your typical woman make any sense of it or make good decisions, if we can't even build a simple beginners' guide?

We can't all do and don't all need a degree in skincare to figure what works. We just want to understand the key properties of the most common ingredients to figure out what our skin needs or would benefit from.

I don't think the answer is just that it's so complex that we should not even try.

@Luckingfovely I hear you & agree a beginner's guide would be helpful. If people then want to move beyond that once they gain confidence, experience and knowledge, then great. But you've got to start somewhere. I'd like GCSE level skin care advice not PhD!
I'm no help adding to the list - I'm definitely a student rather than a tutor.

botemp has some really good beginners guides in the long-running skincare threads - they were really useful when I was starting out - if you scroll down they are at the bottom of the first post:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/4226644--Fantastic-Skincare-Bear-Shaped-Pseudo-Face-Vibrators-Dont-Ask-us-What-Theyre-For-eo

They are a few years old now but still very relevant, I always thought they should be stickied at the top of S&B because they answer so many basic questions.