Label Reading Made Easy

Yesterday I saw a video urging people to read the labels of the products they buy so they know what they are putting in their hair and on their skin. I believe it's important to know what your using so you can make an educated decision on what best suites your beauty needs. So with that said, I was prompted to give you a little cheat sheet so to say. All those long words on a bottle can give you a headache. I mean come on when you see butyrospermum parkii on the ingredient list, your like what that heck is that? Why can't they just say shea butter? When a product says it contains certain ingredients but then you turn it over and can't find one thing that is a bother. You feel like you need to take a quick chemistry class just to understand what's what. There is a quick and simple way that can help you read and identify some ingredients and what they do just from knowing a few prefix and suffix. here are some tips:

*By law ingredients have to be listed on products in descending order of percentage (from highest to lowest)
*1st ingredient is usually the base (foundation of the product) ex: water (most common), aloe, oils, etc.
*next listed ingredients are usually what gives the product it's texture:
- ide or ate: thickens water
- pol or mer : solidifies
- one: provides smoothness + slip
- ane: mixed with silicone's for thickness
*next are the active ingredients. (remember, the lower they are on the list the lower they are in strength)
*last on the list is usually dyes and/or fragrances
So there you go! I hope this helps. next i'll do a cheat sheet on the vitamins in products (benefits), what do you think of that?



*photo courtesy of goodhousekeeping