That wall of unpronounceable names on the back of your moisturizer is not random — it follows a standardized international system. Once you understand how it works, you can quickly assess any product before buying it.
INCI stands for International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. It's a standardized naming system developed by the Personal Care Products Council and adopted by regulatory bodies worldwide — including Health Canada, the EU, and the US FDA.
When a product is sold in Canada, all ingredients must be listed using their official INCI name on the label. This means a moisturizer from Japan, France, or the US uses the same ingredient names as one made in Canada — making it possible to compare formulations across brands and markets.
This is the most useful thing to know. Ingredients are listed from the highest concentration to the lowest. The first ingredient makes up the largest proportion of the product; the last makes up the smallest.
In practice, this means:
The 1% threshold: Ingredients present at or below 1% concentration can be listed in any order after the ingredients above 1%. This is why you'll often see preservatives, fragrance, and active ingredients clustered near the end — they're all below 1%, and the brand can arrange them however they like below that threshold.
INCI names follow a specific format. Most are derived from Latin botanical names, IUPAC chemical names, or a combination. Some common translations:
| INCI Name | Common Name | What It Is |
|---|---|---|
| Aqua | Water | The base of most water-based products |
| Butyrospermum Parkii Butter | Shea Butter | Emollient derived from the shea tree |
| Tocopherol | Vitamin E | Antioxidant and skin conditioner |
| Retinol | Vitamin A | Cell turnover and anti-aging active |
| Ascorbic Acid | Vitamin C | Antioxidant and brightening agent |
| Niacinamide | Vitamin B3 | Brightening, barrier support, pore minimizing |
| Glycerin | Glycerol | Humectant — draws water into the skin |
| Cetearyl Alcohol | Fatty alcohol | Emollient and emulsifier — not drying |
| Parfum / Fragrance | Fragrance mixture | Can represent hundreds of undisclosed compounds |
A cosmetic formula generally has a few key layers:
Water, glycols (propylene glycol, butylene glycol), silicones, and emollients. These give the product its texture and help ingredients penetrate the skin.
The ingredients doing the therapeutic or cosmetic work — niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, retinol, AHAs, vitamin C. Effective concentrations vary widely by ingredient; more is not always better.
These extend shelf life and improve sensory experience. They appear near the bottom of the list but can still cause reactions in sensitive individuals — particularly fragrance, preservatives like phenoxyethanol, and formaldehyde-releasing agents.
Not all alcohols are the same. This confuses a lot of people:
"Fragrance" or "Parfum" can represent a single compound or a blend of hundreds. Canadian regulations require it to be disclosed as a label ingredient, but not broken down into its components (which are trade secrets under IFRA). This is why fragrance sensitivity can be hard to pin down. See our full article on fragrance in skincare.
A practical three-step process for in-store decisions:
SkinCompass reads the ingredient list for you — flags restricted ingredients and finds comparable alternatives in seconds.