Everyday Face Cream

Details

A light cream for normal to dry skin. One product, most faces, most of the year, and every one of its twenty-one ingredients is on this page with a number. The cheat here is a ratio dressed as a percentage. Ceramides are sold by the supplier as a blend, and that blend is typically 1 to 5 percent actual ceramide dissolved in a carrier. A brand buying it at 5 percent of the formula and printing 5 percent ceramides is quoting the carrier. The real ceramide content in most creams that shout about ceramides is in the tenths of a percent, which is fine, because tenths of a percent is where ceramides work. What is not fine is letting a reader believe the number means what it appears to mean. Ours is 0.30 percent total ceramide, as ceramide NP at 0.20, ceramide AP at 0.05 and ceramide EOP at 0.05, and we would rather print a small true number than a large misleading one. The second number is the one that actually decides whether ceramides do anything. The skin's own barrier lipids are roughly a 3 to 1 to 1 mass ratio of ceramides to cholesterol to free fatty acids, and an unbalanced mix can slow barrier recovery rather than speed it. So this carries cholesterol at 0.10 percent and free fatty acids at 0.10 percent, as stearic acid 0.06 and linoleic acid 0.04. 0.30 to 0.10 to 0.10 is 3 to 1 to 1, and the sum is on the page so you can check it. This is the middle of a three-moisturiser shelf. Oily and combination skin should buy the light gel moisturiser, which has no oils in it at all. Very dry or cracked skin should buy the barrier balm, which has no water in it at all. This one sits between them and suits most people.

• Full INCI, in descending order: Aqua, Glycerin, Squalane, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Panthenol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Phenoxyethanol, Xanthan Gum, Tocopherol, Ceramide NP, Cholesterol, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Stearic Acid, Ceramide AP, Ceramide EOP, Linoleic Acid, Phytosphingosine, Citric Acid
• With percentages: Glycerin 5.0, Squalane 5.0, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride 4.0, Cetearyl Alcohol 3.0, Glyceryl Stearate 2.0, Panthenol 2.0, Cetearyl Glucoside 1.0, Phenoxyethanol 0.7, Xanthan Gum 0.3, Tocopherol 0.2, Ceramide NP 0.2, Cholesterol 0.1, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate 0.1, Ethylhexylglycerin 0.1, Stearic Acid 0.06, Ceramide AP 0.05, Ceramide EOP 0.05, Linoleic Acid 0.04, Phytosphingosine 0.02, Citric Acid to pH, and Aqua is the balance at 76.08
• The 1 percent line falls after the cetearyl glucoside. Thirteen of the twenty-one ingredients sit below it, which is normal and is exactly why an unmarked list is so easy to hide behind
• Total ceramides 0.30 percent, cholesterol 0.10 percent, free fatty acids 0.10 percent. 3 to 1 to 1, the ratio the barrier itself uses
• Squalane 5.0 percent, from olives, not from shark liver. Squalene from a shark and squalane from an olive are different molecules with almost the same name, and the source belongs on the page
• Measured pH 5.5 per lot
• Airless pump, so no fingers in the jar, no air on the lipids, and about 96 percent of the fill actually dispenses
• No fragrance of any kind, no parfum, no essential oil, none of the 26 EU declarable components
• No parabens, and no MIT or CMIT behind them. Phenoxyethanol 0.7 percent with ethylhexylglycerin 0.1 percent
• No mineral oil, no petrolatum, no silicones, no dyes, no alcohol denat, no exfoliating acids
• Honest trade-off one: 0.30 percent ceramides will look thin beside a competitor claiming 5 percent. It is not thin, it is measured differently, and we have explained which
• Honest trade-off two: at 5 percent squalane plus 4 percent triglyceride this is a light cream, not a rich one. On a genuinely cracked winter cheek it will not be enough, and the barrier balm is the answer to that, over the top of this
• Honest trade-off three: an airless pump cannot be refilled and cannot be scraped out at the end. It is the right pack for an unfragranced lipid formula, and it costs a little waste and a plastic component that a glass jar would not