In my previous post, “What you need to know about chemical peels and acids” I have talked about the ubiquity of acids in skincare products. They really are everywhere. Just to remind you its these acids that I am referring to:
I’ll add Gluconolactone and Polyhdryoxy Acids (PHA) to the mix too as these are very fashionable ingredients to (apparently) talk about.
BUT as a consumer, out of all these acids which should you really care about?
To answer this question, I looked at the Ingredient labels of 74 products from the Sephora USA website. I looked for the number of iterations or frequency of each acid in the Ingredient labels.
The product categories were:
- Cleansers (filtering for “AHA/Glycolic Acid” and then “Top 25 Bestsellers”)
- Toners (filtering for “AHA/Glycolic Acid” and then “Top 25 Bestsellers”)
- Face Mask (filtering for Top Selling Masks only)
The underlying excel spreadsheet is available at this LINK
Conclusion
This is my main finding:
- Glycolic Acid is the most common acid, present in more than 1 in 3 products, followed by Lactic Acid (present in 1 out of 4 products) and Salicylic Acid (present in 1 out of 5 products)
- All other acids (Malic Acid, Tartaric Acid, Gluconolactone, Mandelic Acid, Pyurvic Acid) are present in fewer products.
For those of you who prefer a table…
Conclusion
We should only be focussed on 3 acids: Glycolic, Lactic and Salicylic Acids and that’s what my next blogs will focus on.
See also:
https://happyskindays.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-acids-and-chemical-peels/