Peptide Skincare & BeautySkin science and ingredient guides

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The INKEY List Omega Water Cream Versus innisfree Dewy Glow Tone-Up Cream With Jeju Cherry Blossom

The INKEY List Omega Water Cream Versus innisfree Dewy Glow Tone-Up Cream With Jeju Cherry Blossom This barrier-repair moisturizer is formulated around Niacinamide to strengthen the skin barrier and balance excess oil. This brightening day moisturizer is formu

The INKEY List Omega Water Cream Versus innisfree Dewy Glow Tone-Up Cream With Jeju Cherry Blossom

This barrier-repair moisturizer is formulated around Niacinamide to strengthen the skin barrier and balance excess oil.

This brightening day moisturizer is formulated around Niacinamide to brighten dull-looking skin.

What's inside

Key Ingredients

Benefits

Concerns

Ingredients Side-by-side

Water

Dicaprylyl Carbonate

Glycerin

Niacinamide

Propanediol

Betaine

Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate

Coco-Caprylate/Caprate

Magnesium Sulfate

Glycosphingolipids

Glycolipids

Sodium Benzoate

Disteardimonium Hectorite

Oleic Acid

Potassium Sorbate

Citric Acid

Polyglycerin-3

Water, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Propanediol, Betaine, Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Magnesium Sulfate, Glycosphingolipids, Glycolipids, Sodium Benzoate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Oleic Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid, Polyglycerin-3

Dipropylene Glycol

1,2-Hexanediol

Carbomer

Tromethamine

Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/Beheneth-25 Methacrylate Crosspolymer

Disodium EDTA

Ethylhexylglycerin

Parfum

Prunus Yedoensis Leaf Extract

Tocopherol

Water, Glycerin, Propanediol, Dipropylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Betaine, 1,2-Hexanediol, Carbomer, Tromethamine, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/Beheneth-25 Methacrylate Crosspolymer, Disodium EDTA, Ethylhexylglycerin, Parfum, Prunus Yedoensis Leaf Extract, Tocopherol

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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.

Betaine is a humectant. Like hyaluronic acid, it helps attract and retain moisture in the skin. It’s known for being gentle and for helping the skin maintain balanced hydration.

Betaine is mainly used to improve hydration and support calmer skin. It helps skin cells regulate water balance because it functions as an osmolyte.

Some studies suggest betaine may support making skin tone more even.

Fun fact: Betaine naturally exists in the skin and the body. In cosmetic products, it can be either plant-derived (most commonly from sugar beets) or synthetically produced for consistency and stability.

Betaine is also known as trimethylglycine.

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.

Niacinamide is a multitasking form of vitamin B3 that strengthens the skin barrier, reduces pores and dark spots, regulates oil, and improves signs of aging.

And the best part? It's gentle and well-tolerated by most skin types, including sensitive and reactive skin.

You might have heard of "niacin flush", or the reddening of skin that causes itchiness. Niacinamide has not been found to cause this.

In very rare cases, some individuals may not be able to tolerate niacinamide at all or experience an allergic reaction to it.

If you are experiencing flaking, irritation, and dryness with this ingredient, be sure to double check all your products as this ingredient can be found in all categories of skincare.

When incorporating niacinamide into your routine, look out for concentration amounts. Typically, 5% niacinamide provides benefits such as fading dark spots. However, if you have sensitive skin, it is better to begin with a smaller concentration.

When you apply niacinamide to your skin, your body converts it into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). NAD is an essential coenzyme that is already found in your cells as "fuel" and powers countless biological processes.

In your skin, NAD helps repair cell damage, produce new healthy cells, support collagen production, strengthen the skin barrier, and fight environmental stressors (like UV and pollution).

Our natural NAD levels start to decline with age, leading to slower skin repair, visible aging, and a weaker skin barrier. By providing your skin niacinamide, you're recharging your skin's NAD levels. This leads to stronger, healthier, and younger looking skin.

Another name for vitamin B3 is nicotinamide. This vitamin is water-soluble and our bodies don't store it. We obtain Vitamin B3 from either food or skincare. Meat, fish, wheat, yeast, and leafy greens contain vitamin B3.

The type of niacinamide used in skincare is synthetically created.

Propanediol is an all-star ingredient. It softens, hydrates, and smooths the skin.

It’s often used to:

Propanediol is not likely to cause sensitivity and considered safe to use. It is derived from corn or petroleum with a clear color and no scent.

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!

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The reference edit

Ingredients, questions
& further reading.

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

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Formula cabinet

Ingredients & structured notes

Ingredient index

The Inkey List Chia Seed Curl Defining Hair TreatmentIngredients explained

  1. 01Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.
  2. 02It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
  3. 03Expand to read more
  4. 04Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.
  5. 05One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
  6. 06A nice-feeling, light emollient that makes the skin soft and smooth. It gives a fresh and gliding sensation with a powdery or soft after-feel depending on the exact grade used. It is a popular alternative to replace silicones.
  7. 07Chemically speaking, it is an alkane (stable, non-reacting hydrocarbon) that used to be produced from petrochemicals, but today's versions are typically vegetable based. It is readily biodegradable.
  8. 08A 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.
  9. 09Chemically 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…
  10. 10It 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".
  11. 11A so-called fatty (the good, non-drying kind of) alcohol that does all kinds of things in a skincare product: it makes your skin feel smooth and nice (emollient), helps to thicken up products and also helps water and oil to blend (emulsifier). Can b…
  12. 12We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
  13. 13A very common water-loving surfactant and emulsifier that helps to keep water and oil mixed nicely together.
  14. 14It's often paired with glyceryl stearate - the two together form a super effective emulsifier duo that's salt and acid tolerant and works over a wide pH range. It also gives a "pleasing product aesthetics", so no wonder it's popular.
  15. 15It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.
  16. 16It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.
  17. 17Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH le…
  18. 18It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.
  19. 19It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It can be naturally found in fruits and teas but can also be made synthetically.
  20. 20No matter the origin, in small amounts (up to 1%) it’s a nice, gentle preservative. Has to be combined with some other nice preservatives, like potassium sorbate to be broad spectrum enough.
Source · incidecoder.com
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Product index

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Comparison edit

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