Pop tint lip stain adds a splash of just-bitten fruit color to the lips, offering a lasting, natural, your-lips-but-better tint.
Key Ingredients and Their Functions
Water and Humectants
Good old water, aka H2O, is the most common skincare ingredient of all. The water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized, meaning that almost all of the mineral ions inside it are removed. Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water is usually the main solvent in cosmetic products.
Butylene glycol, or BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product. BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin. It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone. BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive.
Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often used and often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It’s a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. A natural corn sugar derived glycol, it acts as a humectant and emollient.
Sodium hyaluronate is the sodium form of the famous NMF, hyaluronic acid (HA). HA is a huge polymer found in the skin that acts as a sponge helping the skin to hold onto water, being plump and elastic. As far as skincare goes, sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid are pretty much the same and the two names are used interchangeably. Chemically, the two forms are almost the same, both are polymers and the subunits can be repeated in both forms as much as you like.
Emollients and Moisturizers
Glycerin is the big brother of glycerin. Compared to glycerin, it has a larger molecular structure (kind of a double glycerin).
A clear, slightly yellow, odorless oil that's a very common, medium-spreading emollient. This description applies to multiple ingredients, including potentially Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride and Isopropyl Myristate.
Squalane is in fashion, and there is a reason for it. Chemically speaking, it is a saturated hydrocarbon, meaning that it's a nice and stable oily liquid with a long shelf life. It occurs naturally in certain fish and plant oils (e.g. olive), and in the sebum of the human skin. Squalane's main functions are "emolliency, surface occlusion, and TEWL prevention all with extreme cosmetic elegance". In other words, it's a superb moisturizer that makes your skin nice and smooth, without being heavy or greasy. Another advantage of squalane is that it is pretty much compatible with all skin types and skin conditions.
An emollient and natural moisturizer that can be found also in the sebum (oily stuff our skin produces).
Stabilizers, Emulsifiers, and Thickeners
Polybutene is a polymer used as a gloss improver for lipsticks and lip glosses. It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. It usually comes to the formula as part of a thickener-emulsifier trio paired with Polyisobutene and Polysorbate 20. The three together have excellent thickening properties with remarkable emulsifying-stabilizing abilities.
A hydrocarbon-based emollient that can come in different viscosities from silky-light through satiny-smooth to luxurious, rich. It forms a non-occlusive film on the surface of the skin and brings gloss without greasiness to the formula.
A handy helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix nicely together, aka emulsifier.
Ethylhexylglycerin, if spotted on the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol. This long-named, polymer molecule is a helper ingredient that's good at emulsifying and stabilizing oils into water-based formulas. It also acts as a thickening and gelling agent that creates nice, non-sticky and supple textures. It works over a very wide pH range (3-12) and can be used to thicken up low-pH formulas, such as exfoliants. Its recommended used range is 0.3-3%.
A helper ingredient that's good at stabilizing water-based formulas and also serves as a thickener.
Preservatives and Antioxidants
The blend of Caprylyl Glycol and Phenoxyethanol is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product.
A really multi-functional helper ingredient that can do several things in a skincare product: it can bring a soft and pleasant feel to the formula, it can act as a humectant and emollient, it can be a solvent for some other ingredients (for example it can help to stabilize perfumes in watery products) and it can also help to disperse pigments more evenly in makeup products.
Tocopherol is the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. It works as an antioxidant.
Super common little helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.
A chelating agent that helps to preserve cosmetic products by neutralizing the metal ions (especially iron) in the formula (that usually get into there from water).
Fragrance
Fragrance: Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it. Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. It’s definitely a smart thing to avoid with sensitive skin (and fragrance of any type - natural is just as allergic as synthetic, if not worse!).
The generic term for nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice.
Colorants
Red Iron Oxide is the super common pigment that gives the familiar, "rust" red color. It is also the one that gives the pink tones in your foundation.
Yellow Iron Oxide is the super common inorganic pigment that gives the yellow tones in your foundation.
Black Iron Oxide is the super common inorganic pigment that controls the darkness of your foundation or gives the blackness to your mascara. Chemically speaking, it is a mixture of iron II and iron III oxide.
CI 42090 or Blue 1 is a super common synthetic colorant in beauty & food.
Ci 19140 or Tartrazine is a super common colorant in skincare, makeup, medicine & food. FDA says it's possible, but rare, to have an allergic-type reaction to a color additive.
Titanium dioxide as a colorant.
