Hello and welcome to the first lesson

of the course, which is
about cosmetic ingredients.

Let's get started.

When we design and make cosmetics,
knowing the ingredients is super important.

It is the basis of everything.

The cosmetic industry is changing so fast
that it would be impossible to tell you

about every single
ingredient on the market.

So instead, with this course and with this
lesson, I aim to help you understand

the basics so then you can conduct
your research in the future.

When we choose ingredients

for a cosmetic product, we'll do
that by checking a few criteria.

I listed some of them here for you.

First, function.

So is that ingredient a vitamin?

Is it an emollient?

Check why you want to include
it in the product.

Also, check for compatibility
and contraindications.

Is the ingredient suitable
for the designed product?

For example,

if you want to design a shower gel
for children,

you cannot use a preservative
with salicylic acid content.

That is a legal issue.

You need to check compatibility
and contraindications.

These are normally listed
on the supplier's website.

You also need to consider
suitability for the designed packaging.

You need to consider the unique selling

point or the brand story if you want
to make a cosmetic for a brand.

Finally, accreditation.

This is especially important
if you want to achieve organic

certifications such as EcoCert or
Cosmos in the future for the products.

You need to make sure that your
ingredient is suitable for those.

Ingredients have four main categories.

These are structural, functional,
supportive, and added extras.

Let's see what these mean.

First up, structural ingredients.

As the name suggests,

these ingredients are used in a product
to create a body or a structure.

For example,
if you want to make a lip balm in a tube,

that lip balm must keep the tube shape
and it cannot melt in hot weather.

In order to achieve this, we use waxes.

That means waxes are our structural
ingredients in a lip balm.

Next, functional ingredients.

A functional ingredient is used

to make sure that your product
works the way it is designed.

For example, a shampoo.

A shampoo needs to clean the hair
and it needs to foam for user experience.

In order to achieve this,
we use surfactants.

Now, if you look at the label

of a shampoo, you will notice that it
will contain more than one surfactant.

Here I gave you coco glucoside as

an example, but in reality, one product can
have more than one functional ingredient.

It really depends on the product.

Next, we have supportive ingredients.

Supportive ingredients are used

to achieve good stability and a good
shelf life for our product.

In case of a shampoo, again as an example,
we use a preservative to get that good

shelf life and to protect
the product from contamination.

And finally, we have added extra.

These ingredients don't have particular
structural or functional roles.

They are used to enhance
the customer experience.

So, in case of a shampoo,

you would consider colour or
scent as an added extra.

Remember, that one ingredient can
fit into multiple categories.

As an example, I have here cocoa butter,
which could be functional because it is

an excellent emollient for the skin,
so it makes the skin soft and supple.

But it's also a structural ingredient,

because it can adjust
the viscosity of the product.

Cocoa butter is a hard butter.

It's different from, let's just say,
mango butter or shea butter, so

it can make your product slightly harder
than it would be with other butters.

Next, let's talk about
ingredient functions.

The terms I will be using here are

terms we use in cosmetic chemistry
and also these are the terms you see

on legal documents
such as your product safety reports.

First, we have antioxidants.

Antioxidants are used in a product to help
prevent our lipids from going rancid.

This could be tocopherol
or rosemary extract.

These are the two we normally
use in products for this reason.

However, antioxidants exist for the skin
such as vitamin C, so don't mix the two.

Astringents are used
for their tightening effects.

Examples would be alcohol or witchhazel,

and they are often used
in products for oily skin.

The next two categories are
often mixed up by formulators.

They are both for exfoliation,
but they are not the same.

The category of exfoliants

refers to chemical exfoliants,
such as AHA or salicylic acid.

Chemical exfoliants dissolve the glue,
so to speak, between skin cells,

and therefore we could remove
that dead skin when we exfoliate.

On the other hand, abrasives,
these are the physical exfoliants,

such as sugar in body scrub or
silica in toothpaste.

They both work the same way.

We use them to remove
the dead layer of the skin.

Next, we have chelators.

Chelators are ingredients we add

to a product
to bind metal ions that are possibly

present either in the
ingredients or in water.

Chelators are most often used

in surfactant products
such as your shampoo or shower gel.

They can help with preservation,

they can help stabilize the foam and they
can also help avoid the soap scum buildup

when the product is
in contact with hard water.

So if you live in a hard water area,

you may have noticed that after a while
your shower gel or your shampoo creates

that layer on the tiles and in the bath,
that's what we call soap scum.

By using chelators in products,
we can help prevent that buildup.

Next, we have colourants.

Now, colourants are used mainly in make-up
products because, obviously, we want

colour on the skin when we apply
an eye shadow or a lipstick.

They can be also used as added
extras in other cosmetics.

But here, you need to be careful because
this function is not always allowed

everywhere in the world, so you need
to check your local regulations.

Next, we have fragrances.

You already know about these.

We use fragrances to give
a lovely scent to the product.

Under the term fragrance,

we can talk about both synthetic
and natural fragrance or essential oils.

pH adjusters,

as the name suggests, are used to either
increase or decrease the pH of a product.

Most often we use citric acid or lactic
acid to decrease

the pH or sodium hydroxide and arginine to
increase the PH of the product.

Next, we have preservatives.

It's a huge topic.

We will talk about this in the coming
lessons,

but basically we use preservatives to
help prevent or stop

the growth or multiplication
of bacteria, yeast, or mold.

We need to pay attention to these three

types of microbes,
bacteria, yeast and mold.

Next we've got thickeners
or rheology modifiers.

We use them to thicken our products.

In a water-based product this
would be gums such xanthan and gum.

In oil-based products we could use waxes
as thickeners or there are other

ingredients that would
fall into this category.

The next two categories are huge.

First, we've got skin-conditioning agents

and within this category, we've
got three subcategories.

These are emollients
which have skin-softening properties.

This would be your butters,
your oils or esters.

Humectants on the other hand,
they are used to hold water in the skin.

We use humactants to make sure
that our skin is not dehydrated.

Examples would be glycerin,
propanediol or hyaluronic acid.

The way they work,

they can either pull water
from the atmosphere, from the air,

or they can pull water
from the deeper layers of the skin.

Don't worry, if they do this, they are
not going to make the skin dehydrated.

There's so much where that comes from,
but they are very useful ingredients.

In fact, we tend to use
humactants whenever we use water.

Occlusives are quite similar to emollients
in the sense that they can make our skin

soft and supple,
but the point of exclusives,

occlusives rather, is that they
stop the transepidermal water loss.

When you have occlusives in your product,
they create a protective film on the skin,

so the water doesn't
evaporate from the skin.

This is often desirable in certain
products, such as your lip balm or your

hand cream, where you want
to have that protective layer.

Waxes, butters and oils can
fall into this category.

Next we have the category of surfactants.

In here we've got again three
different subcategories.

We've got emulsifiers,
cleansing agents and solubilisers.

Emulsifiers are, basically, surfactants,

but they work differently
from cleansing agents.

Emulsifiers are used to create
a homogeneous blend by bringing the oil

and water phases together, and this would
create your lotions and your creams.

On the other hand, cleansing agents,

they are used to cleanse the skin,
the hair, and they produce foam.

And finally, we've got solubilizers,
which are used to disperse

otherwise insoluble substances
in a different medium.

Imagine you want to create
a toner with essential oil in it.

We need to use a solubilizer to make sure

that essential oil or fragrance is
properly dispersed in the water base.

These were all the categories we needed
to discuss in this very brief session.

Now we need to check how we find out
about ingredients and their functions.

Cosmetic ingredients will
have their INCI names.

They also have a CAS number and they
should also be in the causing database.

Now in the coming lesson,

we will have a different session
on the Cosing database where I'll show

you how to actually use it and find
information in that system.

Remember, the course is based on EU

regulations because it is
the strictest in the world.

But even if you don't live in the EU, I'm
sure you will still find it very useful.

I shall see you in the coming lessons.