Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (2024)

Aqua

Also-called: Water | 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.

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 >>

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.

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).

Butylene Glycol

What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, solvent | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product.

BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin.

It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone (at least not that we know about). BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive.

Lauric Acid - goodie

What-it-does: anti-acne, surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying | Irritancy: 1 | Comedogenicity: 4

A 12 carbon length fatty acid that can be found naturallyin coconut milk, coconut oil, laurel oil, and palm kernel oil. It's also in breast milk. As a skincare ingredient, it can be used as an emulsifier or as a cleansing agent.

What's more, there is emerging research about lauric acid being a good anti-acne ingredient. A 2009 study found thatthe lowest concentration to prevent evil acne-causing P. acnesgrowth of lauric acidis over 15 times lower than that of gold standard anti-acne ingredient benzoyl peroxide.

Though the studies are only in-vitro(made in the lab, not on real people), and it also has a high comedogenicity index, itmightbe worth a try if you are prone to inflamed acne (the type that's caused by P. acnes bacteria).

Glyceryl Stearate

What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1-2

A super common, waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together, gives body to creams and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth.

Chemically speaking, it is the attachment of a glycerin molecule to the fatty acid calledstearic acid. It can be produced from most vegetable oils (in oils three fattyacidmolecules are attached to glycerin instead of just one like here) in a pretty simple, "green" process that is similar to soap making. It's readily biodegradable.

It also occurs naturally in our body and is used as a food additive. As cosmetic chemistColins writes it, "its safety really is beyond any doubt".

PEG-3 Distearate

What-it-does: emulsifying

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (1) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Decyl Glucoside

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, emulsion stabilising

A vegetable origin (coconut or palm kernel oil and glucose) cleansing agent with great foaming abilities. It's also mild to the skin and readily biodegradable.

Zinc Gluconate - goodie

What-it-does: anti-acne, soothing, deodorant

If you are fighting acne and have looked into oral supplements, chances are that zinc gluconate sounds familiar to you. It is a zinc salt that has research proving it to be effective againstinflammatory acne, though not quite as effective as theantibiotic minocycline (31.2% vs. 63.4% success rate). However, zinc supplements are easily available, have little-to-no side effects, so supplementing them with a 30mg per day dose can still be a good idea.

As for smearing zinc gluconate all over your face, it is also not a bad idea. Zinc has multiple magic abilities: it is antibacterial (including evil, acne-causingP. acnes) and sebum-regulating (5α-reductase inhibitor), great for acne-prone skin types.It also stimulatesantioxidant enzyme systems (mainly superoxide dismutase) and has nice wound healing abilitiesacting mainly in the first,proliferation phase. So great for skin typesin need of healing and soothing.

What about the gluconate part? It is thereto promotethe absorption and bioavailabilityof zinc and also plays a role incellular regeneration (involved in the synthesis of ribose sugars, structural components of DNA and RNA).

Phenoxyethanol

What-it-does: preservative

It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.

It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.

Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).

It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.

Saccharide Isomerate - goodie

What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant

A 100% natural and plant-derived moisturizer that mimics the natural carbohydrate fraction found in the upper layer of the skin. Its special magic power is to bind to the skin stronger and longer than other moisturizer ingredients do so it can keep the skin hydrated longer than usual.

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.

Salicylic Acid - superstar

Also-called: BHA | What-it-does: exfoliant, anti-acne, soothing, preservative

  • It's one of the gold standard ingredients for treating problem skin
  • It can exfoliate skin both on the surface and in the pores
  • It's a potent anti-inflammatory agent
  • It's more effective for treating blackheads than acne
  • For acne combine it with antibacterial agents like benzoyl peroxide or azelaic acid

Read all the geeky details about Salicylic Acid here >>

Fragrance - icky

Also-called: Fragrance, Parfum;Parfum/Fragrance | What-it-does: perfuming

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!).

Menthol - icky

What-it-does: soothing

Menthol needs no introduction: it's the thing that causes the cooling sensationso well-known both from cosmeticproducts as well as a bunch of other things like chocolate, chewing gum, toothpaste or cigarette.It's a natural compound that comes from theessential oil of Mentha species (peppermint oil contains 40-50% menthol) and it gives them their typical minty smell and flavor.

As for skincare, menthol seems to be a mixed bag. Apart from the cool cooling sensation (that might last up to 70 mins!), it also has painkilling, itch reducing, antibacterial, antifungal and even penetration enhancing properties.On the other hand, it also seems to act as a skin irritant that increases trans-epidermal water loss (the water that evaporates from the outer layer of the skin) and thus contributes to drying out the skin.

Allantoin - goodie

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

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmeticproductsis produced synthetically.

It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.

Disodium EDTA

What-it-does: chelating

Super common little helper ingredient thathelps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.

It is typically used in tiny amounts, around 0.1% or less.

Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

A handy helper ingredient (a polymer, i.e. big molecule from repeated subunits) that is used to stabilize emulsions as well as to thicken up products. It can also stabilize foam in cleansing products.

Ethylhexylglycerin

What-it-does: preservative, deodorant

If you have spottedethylhexylglycerinon the ingredient list, most probably you will see there also the current IT-preservative,phenoxyethanol. They are good friends becauseethylhexylglycerincan boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.

Also,it's an effective deodorant and a medium spreadingemollient.

Menthyl Lactate - icky

A menthol-derived cooling agent that is claimed to give a long-lasting cooling effect (similar tomentholitself) while also being moisturizing and less irritating than menthol thanks to the lactic acid part. It's recommended to be used at 0.5-1%.

PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil

What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing

A mildly viscous, amber-colored liquid with fatty odor, made from Castor Oil and polyethylene glycol (PEG).

If it were a person, we’d say, it’s agile, diligent & multifunctional. It’s mostly used as an emulsifier and surfactant but most often it is used to solubilizefragrances into water-based formulas.

PPG-26-Buteth-26

A helper ingredient that usually comes to the formula coupled withPEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil. The two together work as surfactants and oil solubilizers. It's a non-sticky duo that works at low concentration and is often used to solubilize fragrance components into water-based formulas.

Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract

Also-called: Sage Leaf Extract | What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (2) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Citric Acid

What-it-does: buffering

Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. If these magic three letters don’t tell you anything, click here and read our detailed description on glycolic acid, the most famous AHA.

So citric acid is an exfoliant, that can - just like other AHAs - gently lift off the dead skin cells of your skin and make it more smooth and fresh.

There is also some research showing that citric acid with regular use (think three monthsand 20% concentration) can help sun-damaged skin, increase skin thickness and some nice hydrating things called glycosaminoglycans in the skin.

But according to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid. Probably that’s why citric acid is usually not used as an exfoliant but more as a helper ingredient in small amounts to adjust the pH of a formulation.

Sodium Citrate

What-it-does: chelating, buffering

A little helper ingredient that is used to adjustthe pH of the product. It also helps to keep products stay nice longer by neutralizingthe metal ionsin the formula (they usually come from water).

Cupressus Sempervirens Fruit Extract

What-it-does: perfuming

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (3) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Ammonium Acrylates Copolymer

What-it-does: viscosity controlling

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (4) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

PEG-40 Castor Oil

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

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (5) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Propanediol

Also-called: Zemea | What-it-does: solvent, moisturizer/humectant

Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often usedand often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. It's produced sustainably from corn sugar and it's Ecocert approved.

It's quite a multi-tasker: can be used to improve skin moisturization, as a solvent, to boost preservative efficacyor to influence the sensory properties of the end formula.

Potassium Sorbate

What-it-does: preservative

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It’s not a strong one and doesn’t really work against bacteria, but more against mold and yeast. To do that it has to break down to its active form, sorbic acid. For that to happen, there has to be water in the product and the right pH value (pH 3-4).

But even if everything is right, it’s not enough on its own. If you see potassium sorbate you should see some other preservative next to it too.

BTW, it’s also a food preservativeand even has an E number, E202.

Sodium Benzoate

What-it-does: preservative

A helper ingredient that helps to makethe products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It works mainly against fungi.

It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5). It’s not strong enough to be used in itself so it’s always combined with something else, often with potassium sorbate.

Trideceth-9

What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (6) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Laureth-21

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (7) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

1,2-Hexanediol

What-it-does: solvent

A really multi-functional helper ingredient that can do several things in a skincare product: it can bring a soft and pleasant feel to the formula, it can act as a humectant and emollient, it can be a solvent for some other ingredients (for example it can help to stabilize perfumesin watery products) and it can also help to disperse pigments more evenly in makeup products. And that is still not all: it can also boost the antimicrobial activity of preservatives.

Aminomethyl Propanediol

What-it-does: buffering

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (8) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Caprylhydroxamic Acid

What-it-does: chelating

A chelating agent that helps to preserve cosmetic products by neutralizing the metal ions (especially iron) in the formula (that usually get into there from water). Its special thing is that it also acts as abiostatic and fungistatic agent and remains active even at high pH.

It is often coupled withantimicrobial glycols(such as propanediol) to create a "preservative free preservative system" for cosmetic products.

Dimethicone

What-it-does: emollient | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

Probably themost common silicone of all. It is a polymer (created from repeating subunits) molecule and has different molecular weight and thus different viscosity versions from water-light to thickliquid.

As for skincare, it makes the skin silky smooth, creates a subtle gloss and forms a protective barrier (aka occlusive). Also, works well to fill in fine lines and wrinkles and give skin a plump look (of course that is only temporary, but still, it'snice). There are also scar treatment gels out there using dimethicone as their base ingredient. It helps to soften scars and increase their elasticity.

As for hair care, it is a non-volatile silicone meaning that it stays on the hair rather than evaporates from it andsmoothes the hairlike no other thing. Depending on your hair type, it can bea bit difficult to wash out and might cause some build-up (btw, this is not true to all silicones, only the non-volatile types).

Polysorbate 20

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

It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula.

Sodium Dehydroacetate

Also-called: Geogard 111S | What-it-does: preservative

A helper ingredient that helps to makethe products stay nice longer, akapreservative. It works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria.

It is Ecocert and Cosmos approved, and is popular in natural products.

Ci 77891

Also-called: Titanium Dioxide/Ci 77891 | What-it-does: colorant | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Ci 77891 is the color code of titaniumdioxide.It's a white pigment with great color consistency and dispersibility.

Ci 19140

Also-called: Tartrazine, Yellow 5 | What-it-does: colorant

Ci 19140 or Tartrazine is a super common colorant in skincare, makeup, medicine & food. It’s a synthetic lemon yellow that'sused alone or mixed with other colors for special shades.

FDA saysit's possible, but rare, to have an allergic-type reaction to a color additive. As an example, it mentions that Ci 19140may cause itching and hives in some people but the colorant is always labeled so that you can avoid it if youare sensitive.

Ci 77266

Also-called: Carbon Black | What-it-does: colorant

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (9) We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Ci 42090

Also-called: Blue 1 | What-it-does: colorant

CI 42090 or Blue 1 is a super common synthetic colorant in beauty & food. Used alone, it adds a brilliant smurf-like blue color, combined with Tartrazine, it gives the fifty shades of green.

Kahf Oil And Acne Facial Wash ingredients (Explained) (2024)
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