01 / ORDERIngredients are listed by weight.
By law in most countries, ingredients must be listed in descending order of weight — the ingredient present in the largest amount comes first. This applies to food, skincare, and cleaning products alike.
A moisturiser that lists Water, Glycerin, Shea Butter is mostly water with some glycerin — the shea butter is only a small fraction of the formula, despite what the marketing says.
The first ingredient is typically present in the largest amount. Usually water in skincare, or flour in baked goods.
Ingredients present below 1% can be listed in any order. That's often where actives and preservatives live.
02 / FIRST FIVEThe first five ingredients matter most.
The first five ingredients typically account for 80% or more of a product's formula. If those are problematic — cheap fillers, refined sugars, harsh surfactants — the active ingredients further down the list won't make much difference.
When assessing a product, always read the first five before anything else. The hero ingredient on the front of the bottle is often ingredient number 14.
03 / SPLITSWatch for ingredient splitting.
A common practice is listing the same ingredient under multiple names to spread them out — making each appear lower on the list than it would if combined. This is especially common with sugars and oils.
- Sugar aliases: glucose, fructose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, cane juice, sucrose
- Salt aliases: sodium chloride, sea salt, rock salt, iodized salt
- Palm oil aliases: palmitate, palmitoyl, cetyl alcohol, sodium palm kernelate
If you see three or four forms of sugar scattered through the list, the product is likely far higher in sugar than any single entry implies.
04 / E-NUMBERSE-numbers and additive codes.
E-numbers are standardised codes for food additives approved in the EU. Not all are harmful — E300 is vitamin C, E330 is citric acid. But others have legitimate concerns:
- E621 — Monosodium glutamate (MSG). Linked to headaches in sensitive individuals.
- E102 — Tartrazine. Yellow dye linked to hyperactivity in children; requires EU warning label.
- E250 — Sodium nitrite. Preservative in processed meats; can form nitrosamines (probable carcinogens).
- E951 — Aspartame. Artificial sweetener; debated metabolic effects; classified as "possibly carcinogenic" by WHO (IARC Group 2B) at high doses.
The E-number system doesn't tell you if something is safe — it tells you it's approved. Those are different things.
05 / MARKETINGMarketing claims vs. reality.
Terms like "natural," "clean," "pure," "organic" (unless certified), and "free from" are marketing language with no legal requirement behind them in most jurisdictions. The only reliable information is the actual ingredient list.
A product can say "made with natural ingredients" while still containing synthetic preservatives, artificial dyes, and refined sugars. Always read past the front label. The ingredient list is the contract; everything else is advertising.
06 / INCIINCI names in skincare.
Skincare products use INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) names — standardised Latin or chemical names that apply across all countries. Some common translations:
- Aqua = water
- Tocopherol = vitamin E
- Ascorbic acid = vitamin C
- Butyrospermum parkii = shea butter
- Glycine soja = soybean oil
- Retinol = vitamin A (same name in INCI)
Copy and paste an INCI name into search when you don't recognise it.
Most INCI names have instant results. Our scanner does this automatically — and flags the ones worth flagging.