How to read an ingredient label.

INCI labels — the standardised ingredient lists on cosmetic products — are written in a specific way. Once you know the rules, you can read most labels in about thirty seconds and know roughly what you're buying. Here's the cheat sheet.

Order matters. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, down to 1% of the formula. After 1%, ingredients can appear in any order. So the first three ingredients usually make up the bulk of the product, and the last seven might collectively be less than 1%. If the first ingredient on a 'vitamin C serum' is water, the product is mostly water; the vitamin C is somewhere in the back half.

Latin or scientific names are the rule. 'Aqua' is water. 'Butyrospermum parkii' is shea butter. 'Tocopherol' is vitamin E. These are required by INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) — brands can't just write 'water' because the same standard applies in Europe, Japan, and other markets where English isn't the default.

Names ending in -eth, -oxynol, -ate are usually synthetic surfactants or emulsifiers. Sodium laureth sulfate, nonoxynol-9, PEG-40 stearate. Not necessarily bad, but reliably synthetic. Names ending in -paraben are preservatives — methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben — some restricted in certain markets; phenoxyethanol is the most common alternative.

Common occlusives: petrolatum (petroleum jelly), mineral oil, paraffin, microcrystalline wax. These show up in most drugstore moisturisers as the primary 'barrier' ingredient. Common silicones: anything ending in -methicone or -siloxane. Dimethicone is the most common — creates that smooth, silky feel.

Common synthetic emollients: isopropyl palmitate, isopropyl myristate, propylene glycol. Cheap, effective, common in lotions. Common humectants: glycerin (natural, fine), butylene glycol, propylene glycol.

Fragrance is a black box. 'Fragrance', 'parfum', and 'aroma' are catch-all terms that can legally contain dozens of individual aroma compounds, none of which need to be disclosed individually. If a product lists 'fragrance' near the top of the ingredient list, that's a meaningful percentage of compounds you can't identify.

'Natural' and 'organic' on the front of the label do not mean anything regulated. USDA Organic and Ecocert are the meaningful certifications. 'Natural' is a marketing word.

The full ingredient list IS the product. A label that says 'made with cocoa butter' prominently but lists cocoa butter as the eighteenth ingredient is using cocoa butter as a marketing flourish, not as a meaningful component. Always check the order.

Apply all this to Sunnbalm and you should be able to read our label in about ten seconds: tallow (most of it), zinc oxide (the mineral, a meaningful percentage), beeswax (the structural binder), cocoa powder (variable, depending on shade). That's the full label. Nothing else. Read this on every product you buy and the world of skincare gets significantly clearer.