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Paula's Choice Skin Balancing Pore-Reducing Toner Versus Obagi Nu-Derm Sunfader

Paula's Choice Skin Balancing Pore-Reducing Toner Versus Obagi Nu-Derm Sunfader This pore-care toner is formulated around Niacinamide and Panthenol to refine the look of pores and balance excess oil. What's inside Key Ingredients Benefits Concerns Ingredients

By Peptide Skincare & Beauty Editorial TeamPublished

Paula's Choice Skin Balancing Pore-Reducing Toner Versus Obagi Nu-Derm Sunfader

This pore-care toner is formulated around Niacinamide and Panthenol to refine the look of pores and balance excess oil.

What's inside

Key Ingredients

Benefits

Concerns

Ingredients Side-by-side

Water

Glycerin

Butylene Glycol

Niacinamide

Polysorbate 20

Adenosine

Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract

Arctium Lappa Seed Oil

Hydrolyzed Jojoba Esters

Sodium PCA

Panthenol

Sodium Hyaluronate

Ceramide NP

Ceramide AP

Ceramide EOP

Phytosphingosine

Cholesterol

Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate

Oleth-10

Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate

Caprylyl Glycol

Hexylene Glycol

Sodium Citrate

Xanthan Gum

Trisodium EDTA

Phenoxyethanol

Water, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Polysorbate 20, Adenosine, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Arctium Lappa Seed Oil, Hydrolyzed Jojoba Esters, Sodium PCA, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Ceramide NP, Ceramide AP, Ceramide EOP, Phytosphingosine, Cholesterol, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Oleth-10, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum, Trisodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol

Hydroquinone

Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate

Benzophenone-3

Ascorbic Acid

BHT

Butylparaben

Cetyl Alcohol

Disodium EDTA

Methylparaben

Propylparaben

Saponins

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

Sodium Metabisulfite

Stearyl Alcohol

Tocopheryl Acetate

Hydroquinone, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Benzophenone-3, Ascorbic Acid, BHT, Butylparaben, Cetyl Alcohol, Disodium EDTA, Glycerin, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Saponins, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Metabisulfite, Stearyl Alcohol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Water

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Alternatives

Ingredients Explained

These ingredients are found in both products.

Ingredients higher up in an ingredient list are typically present in a larger amount.

Glycerin (or glycerol) is a compound naturally found in your skin. It's a powerhouse humectant that pulls water into the stratum corneum.

Topically, glycerin does several things at once:

Your skin makes glycerin on its own (mostly from sebaceous oil breakdown) and shuttles it to your outermost layer of skin, or your epidermis, via aquaporin-3.

Aquaporin-3 is a transporter that is essential for normal skin hydration, elasticity, and repair. Interestingly, mice lacking in AQP3 have dry and less elastic skin that can be fully corrected with glycerin.

This ingredient is non-irritating, plays well with almost every ingredient, and works across all skin types. Typical use is anywhere between 3-10% but can go up to 79% in some leave-on products.

Just know very high concentrations (>40%) can feel tacky in low humidity.

Glycerin is the name for this ingredient in American English. British English uses Glycerol/Glycerine.

Water. It's the most common cosmetic ingredient of all. You'll usually see it at the top of ingredient lists, meaning that it makes up the largest part of the product.

So why is it so popular? Water most often acts as a solvent - this means that it helps dissolve other ingredients into the formulation.

You'll also recognize water as that liquid we all need to stay alive. If you see this, drink a glass of water. Remember to stay hydrated!

Similar Comparisons

The reference edit

Ingredients, questions
& further reading.

Connected source records selected through this article’s public topic index.

01

Formula cabinet

Ingredients & structured notes

Ingredient index

Paula's Choice Omega+ Complex Cleansing BalmIngredients explained

  1. 01A super common, medium-spreading emollient ester that gives richness to the formula and a mild feel during rubout. It can be a replacement for mineral oil and is often combined with other emollients to achieve different sensorial properties.
  2. 02A super common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth. It comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy. It’s a nice ingredient that just feels good on the skin, is super well tolerated by ever…
  3. 03A clear pale yellow liquid that works as a highly effective but mild surfactant. According to the manufacturer, Peg-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate can create microemulsion facial cleansers (microemulsions are a mixture of water, oil, and surfactants) th…
  4. 04If you like oil cleansers but do not like to remove them with a washcloth, look out for this ingredient to find the perfect emulsifiable, water-rinsable oil cleanser.
  5. 05We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
  6. 06An olive oil-derived, water-soluble, but "oily" liquid that works both as an emollient (makes skin nice and smooth) and as a co-emulsifier.
  7. 07It's claimed to offer a distinctive skin smoothness and long-term moisturizing effects while also being great at solubilizing fragrances into water-based products or being a co-emulsifier in oil-in-water emulsions.
  8. 08A hydrogenated castor oil derivative that is used as an oil gelling agent. It can thicken up both oils as well as silicones.
  9. 09A super common, waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together, gives body to creams and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth.
  10. 10Chemically speaking, it is the attachment of a glycerin molecule to the fatty acid called stearic acid. It can be produced from most vegetable oils (in oils three fatty acid molecules are attached to glycerin instead of just one like here) in a pret…
  11. 11Expand to read more
  12. 12It also occurs naturally in our body and is used as a food additive. As cosmetic chemist Colins writes it, "its safety really is beyond any doubt".
  13. 13The emollient plant oil coming from the seeds of the white flowering plant called meadowfoam. Meadowfoam Oil has a unique fatty acid composition with 95% of it being long chain fatty acids (eicosenoic acid C20:1 - 61%, docosenoic acid C22:1 - 16% an…
  14. 14Apart from Meadowfoam Oil's crazy stability, the oil is described as non-greasy, rapidly absorbed and having a similar skin feel to more often used jojoba oil. The oil is ideal for products where a soft, smooth, silky feel is required whether it be …
  15. 15Jojoba is a drought resistant evergreen shrub native to South-western North America. It's known and grown for jojoba oil, the golden yellow liquid coming from the seeds (about 50% of the weight of the seeds will be oil).
  16. 16At first glance, it seems like your average emollient plant oil: it looks like an oil and it's nourishing and moisturizing to the skin but if we dig a bit deeper, it turns out that jojoba oil is really special and unique: technically - or rather che…
  17. 17So what the heck is a wax ester and why is that important anyway? Well, to understand what a wax ester is, you first have to know that oils are chemically triglycerides: one glycerin + three fatty acids attached to it. The fatty acids attached to th…
  18. 18Mother Nature also created wax esters but for a totally different purpose. Chemically, a wax ester is a fatty acid + a fatty alcohol, one long molecule. Wax esters are on the outer surface of several plant leaves to give them environmental protectio…
  19. 19So being a wax ester results in a couple of unique properties: First, jojoba oil is extremely stable. Like crazy stable. Even if you heat it to 370 C (698 F) for 96 hours, it does not budge. (Many plant oils tend to go off pretty quickly). If you ha…
  20. 20Second, jojoba oil is the most similar to human sebum (both being wax esters), and the two are completely miscible. Acne.org has this not fully proven theory that thanks to this, jojoba might be able to "trick" the skin into thinking it has already …
Source · incidecoder.com ⟶
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