Ingredient Encyclopedia
Every ingredient, decoded. Filter by category, skin type, or the concern you're treating.
All ingredients
- Preservative
Benzoic Acid
The acid counterpart of sodium benzoate and, like it, only meaningfully antimicrobial when the formula sits at an acidic pH. It covers bacteria and yeast, and pairs naturally with sorbic acid, which leans the other way toward mold.
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Benzyl Alcohol
A naturally occurring aromatic alcohol used as a mild preservative and solvent to protect formulas from microbial growth. It also appears naturally in some essential oils.
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Caprylhydroxamic Acid
A hydroxamic acid used to keep formulas microbiologically stable, chiefly by binding the trace metal ions that moulds and yeasts need in order to grow. It is nearly always paired with a glycol such as glyceryl caprylate or propanediol rather than used alone.
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Chlorphenesin
A preservative used to control bacteria and fungi in cosmetics, frequently combined with other preservatives such as phenoxyethanol to broaden protection. It helps maintain product safety.
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Dehydroacetic Acid
A preservative effective mainly against yeast and mold, often used together with benzyl alcohol in gentler, 'natural-positioned' preservative systems. It helps keep water-based products stable.
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Disodium EDTA
A chelator rather than a preservative in its own right: it binds trace metal ions left over from water and raw materials, which would otherwise speed up rancidity and blunt the preservative system. It also helps cleansers foam in hard water.
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Glyceryl Caprylate
A monoester of glycerin and caprylic acid that does two jobs at once: it softens skin as a light emollient and it makes life harder for microbes, so formulators use it to support a preservative system while it also improves feel.
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Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
A preservative with strong activity against moulds and yeasts, used at very low levels and usually alongside a broader partner that covers bacteria. Regulators in several regions restrict both its concentration and the product types it may appear in.
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Methylisothiazolinone
A potent broad-spectrum preservative effective at very low concentrations. Its wide use in leave-on products during the 2000s was followed by a well-documented rise in contact allergy, and EU rules now restrict it to rinse-off formats.
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Phenoxyethanol
A broad-spectrum synthetic preservative that disrupts microbial membranes and enzyme activity, protecting a product from bacteria, yeast and mould during use.
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Potassium Sorbate
A gentle, widely used preservative, the salt of sorbic acid, that inhibits yeast and mold growth in water-containing products. It is common in preservative systems for sensitive-skin formulas.
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Sodium Benzoate
A common preservative, the salt of benzoic acid, that protects formulas against bacteria and fungi and is often paired with potassium sorbate. It works best in acidic formulas.
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Sodium Levulinate
The salt of levulinic acid, obtained from plant sugars and used as part of a preservative system rather than as a preservative on its own. It is almost always paired with sodium anisate, the two together covering a usefully broad range.
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Sodium Metabisulfite
An antioxidant and reducing agent used to protect a formula rather than skin. It scavenges oxygen inside the bottle and is one of the usual companions to easily oxidised ingredients such as pure ascorbic acid or a self-tanning agent.
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Sodium Phytate
A chelator: it grabs the trace metal ions that get into a formula from water, raw materials and packaging, and holds them where they can no longer catalyse oxidation. That protects colour, scent, oils and antioxidants, and helps the preservative system work.
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Sorbic Acid
The free-acid form of the preservative usually seen as potassium sorbate. It curbs yeast and mold in water-containing formulas, and since only the undissociated acid is active it needs a low pH, roughly below 5.5, to work at all.
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Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate
A chelator that binds trace metal ions in a formula. Those ions arrive with water and raw materials and quietly catalyse oxidation, so tying them up helps a product keep its colour, scent and active content over its shelf life. It is derived from fermentation-sourced glutamic acid and is readily biodegradable.
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