Ingredients

What is in the color.

Makeup is pigment plus a handful of ingredients that give it a texture and keep it stable. Here is what the common ones do, in plain words, and how to read the list on a label.

Our approach

Specific words, not vague ones.

We build color around plant oils, butters, and waxes, and we would rather tell you exactly what an ingredient is than lean on a label word.

Naturally derived, where it works

Oils, butters, and waxes from plants make up the base of our cream and balm textures. Each ingredient is there for what it does in the formula.

Honest about pigment

The pigments behind skin-tone shades are made in a lab. US rules require cosmetic iron oxides and titanium dioxide to be synthetically prepared, with strict limits on impurities, and we would rather say so than call them natural.

Named plainly

Ingredients appear on a label by their standard names. The US Food and Drug Administration has no definition of "natural" for cosmetics, so we explain ingredients one by one instead.

Glossary

Eight ingredients you will see often.

All eight are common in color cosmetics. Each entry gives the label name, where the ingredient comes from, and its job in a formula.

Open jars of loose powder in pale skin tones with a powder brush and a mascara wand — i.Pigments and minerals

An olive branch laid on a white table — ii.Oils from seeds and fruit

A single smear of white cream on a warm beige surface — iii.Butters and waxes

Iron oxides

Label name: Iron Oxides. International labels may add CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499

The workhorse pigments of skin-tone makeup. Red, yellow, and black iron oxides are blended in different ratios to build shades from fair to deep, and they also color blush, brow, eye, and lip products.

OriginThe same chemical family as rust and red earth, but cosmetic grades are made synthetically. Federal rules (21 CFR 73.2250) require this, cap lead at 10 parts per million and arsenic and mercury at 3, and allow iron oxides in eye-area products.

Where you find itSkin tint, concealer, cheek, lip, brow, eye pencil, mascara.

Titanium dioxide

Label name: Titanium Dioxide. International labels may add CI 77891

A bright white pigment. In makeup it adds opacity: it lightens shades and helps a formula cover. Used heavily, it can look chalky on deeper skin, which is one reason shade ranges need careful balancing.

OriginCosmetic titanium dioxide is synthetically prepared, as federal rules (21 CFR 73.2575) require.

Where you find itComplexion shades and lighter cheek and lip colors.

Mica

Label name: Mica. International labels may add CI 77019

A naturally occurring mineral, ground into fine, flat flakes that reflect light. On its own it gives a soft sheen. Coated with titanium dioxide or iron oxides, it becomes the pearly pigments behind shimmer.

OriginMined. The US color additive listing (21 CFR 73.2496) describes it as a white powder made from the mineral muscovite.

Where you find itSatin and luminous finishes, highlighting shades, eye color.

Jojoba oil

Label name: Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil

Pressed from the seeds of the jojoba shrub. Chemically it is almost entirely wax esters, so it is closer to a liquid wax than to a typical plant oil. In makeup it works as an emollient, part of the oil phase that carries pigment in creams and balms.

OriginPlant seed.

Where you find itCream blush, tinted balm, cream concealer.

Shea butter

Label name: Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter

The fat from the kernels of the African shea tree, Vitellaria paradoxa. It is soft at room temperature and softens further as it warms, which gives cream and balm textures body and a cushioned feel.

OriginPlant kernel.

Where you find itBalms, cream blush, lip pencils.

Candelilla wax

Label name: Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax

A wax from the stems of the candelilla shrub, which grows in the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico and the Big Bend area of Texas. It melts at about 155 to 163 °F (68 to 73 °C), so it gives sticks and pencils structure that holds up when warm, along with firmness and gloss.

OriginPlant stems.

Where you find itLip pencil, brow and eye pencils, balm sticks.

Plant-derived squalane

Label name: Squalane

Squalene is an oil found in olives and some other plants. Fully hydrogenated, it becomes squalane, which stays stable in air where squalene does not. Plant squalane is made either from olive oil, by hydrogenating its squalene, or from sugarcane, by fermenting sugar into a building block that is then hydrogenated. In makeup it is an emollient.

OriginOlive or sugarcane, further processed.

Where you find itSkin tint, cream textures, balms.

Tocopherol

Label name: Tocopherol

Vitamin E, used as an ingredient. In a formula it works as an antioxidant: it slows the reactions with oxygen that turn oils rancid, which helps the formula stay fresh. It is not a preservative.

OriginOccurs in vegetable oils. The ingredient is either extracted from them or made synthetically.

Where you find itAny formula with oils: creams, balms, pencils.

How to read an ingredient list

Most to least, then the colors.

US cosmetic labels follow a few rules from the Food and Drug Administration. Tap an ingredient on the example label to see why it sits where it does.

Example label: a cream blush. For illustration only, not a NaturePure formula

Ingredients:

Above 1 percent, most to least 1 percent or less, any order May contain: colors, any order

Position 1: the largest amount

Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil

Above 1 percent, ingredients appear in descending order of predominance (21 CFR 701.3). In this example, jojoba oil makes up the most of the cream base.

Most to least. The first ingredient is present in the largest amount, and the list continues in descending order (21 CFR 701.3(a)).
The 1 percent line. After the ingredients above 1 percent, those at 1 percent or less can appear in any order (701.3(f)(2)).
Colors last. Color additives can follow at the end, in any order (701.3(f)(3)).
May contain. A line sold in several shades can share one list. Colors not in every shade follow the words "may contain" (701.3(g)). Labels made for other markets sometimes use "+/-" for the same idea.
Fragrance. Fragrance or flavor can be listed simply as "fragrance" or "flavor" (701.3(a)).
Names. Plant ingredients often appear with the botanical name and the common name in parentheses. Many labels use INCI names (International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient), published by the Personal Care Products Council.

Three pools of oil and balm in clear to golden tones on a peach background

Dried white and amber flowers against a pale wall

A question about an ingredient?

Ask us, and we will answer plainly.

If you want to know what an ingredient does or why it is in a format, write to us. We reply by email.

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