Essence Baby Got Blush Cherry Cherry Baby ingredients (Explained) (2024)

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Alcohol Free

Antioxidant: Tocopheryl Acetate

Other Ingredients

Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil

Castor oil is sourced from the castor bean plant native to tropical areas in Eastern Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. It is an age-old ingredient (it’s over 4,000 years old!) with many uses including as a shoe polish, food additive and motor lubricant. You would be reasonable to think that putting shoe polish on your face wouldn’t be the best idea, but it turns out castor oil has some unique properties that make it a stalwart in thick and gloss-giving formulas (think lipsticks and highlighters).

So what is so special about it? The answer is its main fatty acid, called ricinoleic acid (85-95%). Unlike other fatty acids, ricinoleic acid has an extra water-loving part (aka -OH group) on its fatty chain that gives Castor Oil several unique properties. First, it is thicker than other oils, then its solubility is different (e.g. dissolves in alcohol but not in mineral oil), and it allows all kindsof chemical modificationsother oils do not, hence the lots ofCastor oil-derived ingredients. It is alsomore glossy than other oils, in fact,itcreates the highest gloss of all natural oils when applied to the skin. Other than that, it is a very effective emollient and occlusive that reduces skin moisture loss so it is quite common in smaller amounts in moisturizers.

While it is very unlikely (and this is true for pretty much every ingredient), cases of reactions to castor oil have been reported, so if your skin is sensitive, it never hurts to patch test.

Octyldodecanol

What-it-does: emollient, perfuming

Neopentyl Glycol Dicaprylate/​Dicaprate

What-it-does: emollient

An emollient ester (basically an oil like liquid) with a light, elegantand silky feel. It gives a matte finish to the products.

It often comes together with two other esters (called Tridecyl Stearate and Tridecyl Trimellitate) as the three of them can be blended so that they mimic very closely the aesthetic and textural properties of controversial, but nice feeling mineral oil.

Kaolin - goodie

Also-called: Type of clay, China clay | What-it-does: colorant, absorbent/mattifier, abrasive/scrub | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Kaolin is a type of clayor to be precise, a naturally occurring hydrous aluminum silicate. When you hear clay, you probably think of a muddy greenish-blackmess, but that one is bentonite, and this one is a fine, white powder. It is so white that it's also often used, in small amounts, as a helper ingredient to give opacity and whiteness to the cosmetic formulas.

As a clay, it's absorbent and can suck up excess sebum and gunk from your skin, but less so than the more aggressive bentonite. As it's less absorbent, it's also less drying and gentler on the skin, so it's ideal for dry and sensitive skin types.

Calcium Carbonate

What-it-does: abrasive/scrub, buffering

Isostearyl Alcohol

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling

Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax

Euphorbia Cerifera Cera (Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax)

What-it-does: astringent, emulsion stabilising, perfuming, viscosity controlling

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil - goodie

There is definitely some craze going on for coconut oil both in the healthy eating space (often claimed to be the healthiest oil to cook with but this is a topic for another site) and in the skin and hair care space.

We will talkhere about the latter two and seewhy we might want to smear it all over ourselves. Chemically speaking, coconutoil has a unique fatty acid profile. Unlike many plant oils that mostly contain unsaturatedfatty acids (fatty acids with double bonds and kinky structure such as linoleic or oleic), coconut oil is mostly saturated (fatty acids with single bonds only) and its most important fatty acid is Lauric Acid(about 50%). Saturated fatty acids have alinear structure that can stack niceand tight and hence they are normally solid at room temperature. Coconut oil melts around 25°C so it is solid in the tub but melts on contact with the skin.

Tocopheryl Acetate

It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here. This one is the so-called esterified version.

According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life, it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin and may not have the same awesome photoprotective effects as pure Vit E.

Disteardimonium Hectorite

What-it-does: viscosity controlling

An organic derivative of hectorite clay, Disteardimonium Hectorite is used as a viscosity controller - it thickens up formulations to make them less runny.

It’s most popular use in cosmetics is in sunscreens, under the trademarked name Bentone 38 from Elementis. According to the manufacturer info, it is a real multi-tasker, including the ability to prevent pigments settling during storage, stabilizing a formula for longer,creating a light and smooth skin feel andenhancing the water-resistance of sunscreen formulas.

Glyceryl Caprylate

What-it-does: preservative

A 100% plant derived, natural (Ecocert approved) multi-functional ingredient that has emollient and moisturizing properties, can work as a co-emulsifier (meaning that next to other emulsifiers it can help water and oil to mix) and even more importantly has a strong antimicrobial activity.

Thanks to this last thing, it allows a lower percentage of traditional preservative or it might even be able to completelyreplace them.

Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate

Also-called: Tinogard TT | What-it-does: antioxidant, preservative

Parfum (Fragrance) - icky

Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. Fragrance in the US and parfum in the EU is a generic term on the ingredient list that is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average (but it can have as much as 200 components!).

If you are someone who likes to know what you put on your face then fragrance is not your best friend - there's no way to know what’s really in it.

Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. It’s definitely a smart thing to avoid with sensitive skin (and fragrance of any type - natural is just as allergic as synthetic, if not worse!).

Ci 15850 (Red 6 Lake, Red 7 Lake)

Ci 77491

Ci 77492

Yellow Iron Oxide is the super common inorganic (as in no carbon atom in the molecule) pigment that gives the yellow tones in your foundation. Blended with red and black iron oxides, it is essential in all "flesh-toned" makeup products.

Chemically speaking, it is hydrated iron III oxide and depending on the conditions of manufacture, it can range from a light lemon to an orange-yellow shade.

Ci 77499 (Iron Oxides)

Black Iron Oxide is thesuper common inorganic(as in no carbon atom in the molecule)pigmentthat controls the darkness of your foundation or gives the blackness to your mascara. Blended with red and black iron oxides, it is essential in all "flesh-toned" makeup products.

Chemically speaking, it is a mixture of iron II and iron III oxide. Btw, this guy, unlike the yellow and red pigments, is magnetic.