A clear guide to 10 key skincare ingredients: what they do, how concentrations differ, the side effects, and how they pair. The goal is simple, to help you read a label and choose with confidence.
Active ingredients widely used for fine lines, firmness and pigmentation.
The classic anti-aging active for fine lines and pigment. How strengths differ, plus side effects.
Read more → Anti-agingAnti-aging that holds its own against retinol, with almost none of the sting.
Read more → BrighteningBrightening, pores, barrier and more, all from one ingredient. The all-rounder vitamin B3.
Read more → BrighteningA go-to for brightening, antioxidant glow and collagen support. The forms and how stable they are.
Read more →The core ingredients behind recovery for dry, sensitive or eczema-prone skin.
A hydration workhorse that draws up to 1,000 times its weight in water.
Read more → BarrierThe skin barrier's essential mortar. The 5 types and the balanced 3:1:1 ratio.
Read more →The soothing and renewing ingredients that shaped Korean skincare.
The soothing and recovery benefits of cica, from madecassoside and asiaticoside.
Read more → FermentThe heart of SK-II's Pitera. What sits inside this fermented complex.
Read more → RecoveryA natural multitasker of glycosaminoglycans, allantoin and collagen.
Read more →The chemical approach to smoother texture and clearer pores.
