How to Read a Skincare Ingredient List (Including the 1% Rule)

You can stand in a store aisle and read an ingredient list for a full minute and still not know what you're holding. Ingredient lists run on a few rules that nobody ever explains, and once you know them, a label gets a lot easier to read.

Here are the rules, in plain English.

The basic rule: most to least

In the US, cosmetic ingredients are listed in descending order of how much of each is in the product. The first ingredient is there in the largest amount, the second in the next largest, and so on down the list. So the first handful of ingredients tell you what the product is mostly made of.

For a lotion, that's usually water and an oil or two. For a balm, it's usually fats and butters. Reading just the first five tells you more than you'd expect.

The 1% rule

This is the part almost nobody mentions.

The rule about order only applies down to a point. Ingredients present at 1% or less can be listed in any order, after the ones above 1%. (That's in the FDA's cosmetic labeling regulation, 21 CFR 701.3.)

So once a list passes the point where an ingredient is at 1% or less, position stops telling you which ingredient there is more of. A fancy ingredient named on the front of the jar can sit at the very bottom of the list. It's probably still in there, but you can't tell how much of it from where it appears on the list.

None of this is a scandal, and plenty of brands follow the rule to the letter, but it's worth knowing because it changes how you read a label. If the ingredient on the front of the jar is near the end of the list, it's probably a small amount.

What "fragrance" can mean

You'll see the single word "fragrance" on a lot of labels. The FDA lets a company list fragrance ingredients simply as "fragrance." The agency's own explanation is that fragrance formulas are complex mixtures of many different natural and synthetic ingredients, and they're the kind of component most likely to be treated as a trade secret.

So "fragrance" tells you a scent is in there. It doesn't tell you what the scent is made from.

If you like knowing what's in your products, or you react to certain scents, one easy option is a product with no fragrance question to answer at all. An unscented option, like our Restore Tallow Cream, is a good example. Another is a label that names its essential oils one by one. That's how I write mine. If a scent is built from essential oils, the label lists those oils, instead of one word covering the lot.

Why the names look so strange

Plant ingredients are listed by their Latin names, usually with the everyday name in brackets. "Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil" is argan oil. "Tocopheryl Acetate" is a form of vitamin E. Once you spot the bracket, a lot of the strange names turn into things you already know.

Try it on an example

Here's a made-up list, so no real brand is involved: Water, Jojoba Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Shea Butter, Preservative, Rosemary Leaf Extract, Fragrance.

The first five are the body of the product: mostly water, with oil, a thickener, a humectant and a butter. Rosemary sits near the end, after the preservative, so if the front of the jar said "rosemary," I'd treat it as a small amount. And "Fragrance" at the very end tells you a scent was added without telling you what it's made from. Nothing on that list is alarming. You just know more about what you're holding than you did ten seconds ago.

If you ever see a list like this on a label, though, run! This is an improperly labeled product. INCI names (the fancy scientific names) MUST be included.

A 60-second way to read any label

1. Read the first five ingredients. That's most of what's in the jar.
2. Find the ingredient on the front of the package. Where is it on the list? Near the top, you're probably getting a real amount. Near the bottom, probably a small one.
3. Look at the scent. Is it one word, "fragrance," or are the oils named?
4. Look for what's missing. Sometimes the most useful part of a label is what isn't there. My natural deodorant for sensitive skin leaves out baking soda and uses magnesium hydroxide instead, which shows on the label.
5. Ask the maker how it's preserved and tested. A good small-batch maker will happily tell you.

You don't have to memorize any of this

I make these products, so I read labels for fun. You shouldn't have to. The point of all this is that you can open a jar, look at the label, and feel like you know what you're holding.

That's also how I write mine. I want you to be able to read my labels and find exactly what's in the jar. If you'd like to see more of how I think about that, here's what's not in our products and why.