The Art Of Shaving Unscented Shaving Cream ingredients (Explained) (2024)

The Art Of Shaving Unscented Shaving Cream ingredients (Explained) (1)

Contains glycerin and coconut acid that provide hydration during shaving, and helps protect the skin from irritation.

Uploaded by: ferrmichael27 on

Ingredients overview

Water, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide, Methylparaben, Propylparaben

Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>

Highlights

#alcohol-free #fragrance & essentialoil-free

Alcohol Free

Fragrance and Essential Oil Free

Key Ingredients

Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin

Other Ingredients

Buffering: Potassium Hydroxide, Triethanolamine, Sodium Hydroxide

Emulsifying: Myristic Acid, Coconut Acid

Moisturizer/humectant: Glycerin

Perfuming: Myristic Acid, Propylparaben

Preservative: Methylparaben, Propylparaben

Solvent: Water

Surfactant/cleansing: Myristic Acid, Coconut Acid

Viscosity controlling: Stearic Acid

Skim through

Ingredient name what-it-does irr., com. ID-Rating
Water solvent
Stearic Acid emollient, viscosity controlling 0, 2-3
Myristic Acid surfactant/​cleansing, emulsifying, perfuming 0, 3
Potassium Hydroxide buffering
Coconut Acid surfactant/​cleansing, emollient, emulsifying
Glycerin skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant 0, 0 superstar
Triethanolamine buffering 0, 2
Sodium Hydroxide buffering
Methylparaben preservative 0, 0
Propylparaben preservative, perfuming 0, 0

The Art Of Shaving Unscented Shaving Cream

Ingredients explained

Water

Also-called: Aqua | What-it-does: solvent

Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.

It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.

Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.

One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.

Stearic Acid

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2-3

A common multi-tasker fatty acid. It makes your skin feel nice and smooth (emollient), gives body to cream type products and helps to stabilize water and oilmixes (aka emulsions).

Myristic Acid

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 3

A 14 carbon length fatty acid that can be naturally found innutmeg,palm kernel oil, coconut oil and butter fat. It's used as a foam building cleansing agent. Paula Begoun writes that it can be a bit drying to the skin.

Potassium Hydroxide

What-it-does: buffering

It's a very alkaline stuff that helps to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to be just right. It's similar to the more often used sodium hydroxideand pretty much the same of what we wrote there applies here too.

Coconut Acid

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, emollient, emulsifying

The Art Of Shaving Unscented Shaving Cream ingredients (Explained) (2) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Glycerin - superstar

Also-called: Glycerol | What-it-does: skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

  • A natural moisturizer that’s also in our skin
  • A super common, safe, effective and cheap molecule used for more than 50 years
  • Not only a simple moisturizer but knows much more: keeps the skin lipids between our skin cells in a healthy (liquid crystal) state, protects against irritation, helps to restore barrier
  • Effective from as low as 3% with even more benefits for dry skin at higher concentrations up to 20-40%
  • High-glycerin moisturizers are awesome for treating severely dry skin

Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >>

Triethanolamine

What-it-does: buffering | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 2

It’s a little helper ingredient that helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be just right. It’s very alkaline (you know the opposite of being very acidic): a 1% solution has a pH of around 10.

It does not have the very best safety reputation but in general, you do not have to worry about it.

What is true is that if a product contains so-called N-nitrogenating agents (e.g.: preservatives like 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol, 5-Bromo-5-Nitro- 1,3-Dioxane or sodium nitrate - so look out for things with nitro, nitra in the name) that together with TEA can form some not nice carcinogenic stuff (that is called nitrosamines). But with proper formulation that does not happen, TEA in itself is not a bad guy.

But let’s assume a bad combination of ingredients were used and the nitrosamines formed. :( Even in that case you are probably fine because as far as we know it cannot penetrate the skin.

But to be on the safe side, if you see Triethanolamine in an INCI and also something with nitra, nitro in the name of it just skip the product, that cannot hurt.

Sodium Hydroxide

Also-called: lye | What-it-does: buffering

The unfancy name for it is lye. It’s a solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amounts to adjust the pH of the product and make it just right.

For example, in case of AHA or BHA exfoliants, the right pH is super-duper important, and pH adjusters like sodium hydroxide are needed.

BTW, lye is not something new. It was already used by ancient Egyptians to help oil and fat magically turn into something else. Can you guess what? Yes, it’s soap. It still often shows up in the ingredient list of soaps and other cleansers.

Sodium hydroxide in itselfis a potent skin irritant, but once it's reacted (as it is usually in skin care products, like exfoliants) it is totallyharmless.

Methylparaben

What-it-does: preservative | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

The most common type offeared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason parabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient to make sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon.

Apart from the general controversy around parabens (we wrote about it more here), there is a 2006 in-vitro (made in the lab not on real people) research about methylparaben (MP) showing that when exposed to sunlight, MP treated skin cells suffered more harm than non-MPtreated skin cells. The study was not done with real people on real skin but still - using a good sunscreen next to MP containing productsis a good idea. (Well, in fact using a sunscreen is always a good idea. :))

Propylparaben

What-it-does: preservative, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

A very common type offeared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reasonparabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient tomake sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon.

You may also want to take a look at...

what‑it‑does solvent

Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more]

what‑it‑does emollient | viscosity controlling
irritancy,com. 0, 2-3

A common multi-tasker fatty acid that works as an emollient, thickener and emulsion stabilizer. [more]

what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying | perfuming
irritancy,com. 0, 3

A 14 carbon length fatty acid that can be naturally found innutmeg,palm kernel oil, coconut oil and butter fat. It's used as a foam building cleansing agent. [more]

what‑it‑does buffering

It's a very alkaline stuff that helps to set the pH of the cosmetic formula to be just right. [more]

what‑it‑does surfactant/cleansing | emollient | emulsifying
what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant
irritancy,com. 0, 0

A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more]

what‑it‑does buffering
irritancy,com. 0, 2

Helps to set the pH of a cosmetic formulation to be right. It’s very alkaline. [more]

what‑it‑does buffering

Lye - A solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amount to adjust the pH of the product. [more]

what‑it‑does preservative
irritancy,com. 0, 0

The most common type offeared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason parabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient to make sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon.Apart from the general controversy around parabens (we wrote about it more here), there is a 2006 in-vitro (made in the lab not on real people) research about methylparaben (MP) sho [more]

what‑it‑does preservative | perfuming
irritancy,com. 0, 0

A very common type offeared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reasonparabens. It's a cheap, effective and well-tolerated ingredient tomake sure the cosmetic formula does not go wrong too soon. [more]

The Art Of Shaving Unscented Shaving Cream ingredients (Explained) (2024)
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