Ingredient decoder

1. 1

   Find the ingredient list

   It's usually on the back or bottom of the pack, often in tiny print after 'Ingredients' or 'INCI'.
2. 2

   Paste the whole thing in

   Commas or line breaks both work. You don't need to clean it up first.
3. 3

   Read top to bottom

   Order roughly follows concentration, so what's near the top matters most — and any pore-risk flags show up inline.

Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration down to 1%. Below that threshold the order is arbitrary, so the last third of a list tells you almost nothing about dose. That's why "contains ceramides" on the front of a box can mean 0.01%.

Actives are the exception worth hunting for: if niacinamide sits in the top five it is likely at a meaningful percentage; at position 24 it's a claim ingredient. Preservatives, chelators and pH adjusters (phenoxyethanol, disodium EDTA, sodium hydroxide) always sit low and are supposed to.

• Percentages. Brands rarely disclose them, and INCI order only bounds them loosely.
• Whether the formula works. The same ingredients at different doses, pH and vehicle behave completely differently on skin.
• Whether the list is current. Brands reformulate quietly. Trust the carton in your hand over any website.

Is this a skincare ingredient checker? Yes — paste any cosmetic ingredient list and it names each ingredient in plain English and flags the known pore cloggers. It works on any product type: cleansers, toners, serums, moisturisers, sunscreens and makeup.

What is INCI? The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients — the standardised Latin and chemical naming system used on packaging worldwide, which is why the same ingredient reads identically on a Korean, EU and US carton.

Why are ingredients listed in that order? By descending concentration down to 1%. Below 1% a brand may list in any order, so the tail of a list tells you far less than the head.

Does it check whether an ingredient is safe in pregnancy or causes fungal acne? Those are separate screens: pregnancy ingredient checker and fungal acne checker.

Is it free? Free, no sign-up, and the analysis runs entirely in your browser — nothing you paste is stored or sent.