Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. 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). A multi-functional, silky feeling helper ingredient that can do quite many things. It's used as an emulsion stabilizer, solvent and a broad spectrum antimicrobial. According to manufacturer info, it's also a moisturizer and helps to make the product feel great on the skin.
Probably the most common silicone of all. 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's nice). 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 and smoothes the hair like no other thing. A so-called fatty (the good, non-drying kind of) alcohol that does all kinds of things in a skincare product: it makes your skin feel smooth and nice (emollient), helps to thicken up products and also helps water and oil to blend (emulsifier).
Exactly what it sounds: nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. 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.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet. A clear, colorless, low viscosity, volatile (does not absorb into the skin but rather evaporates from it) silicone fluid that has excellent spreadability and leaves a light, silky and smooth feel on the skin. According to manufacturer info, its big advantage is that it's compatible both with other silicones and with natural plant oils, so it's a great ingredient to formulate products with good-sounding, consumer-pleasing vegetable oils but still maintain a cosmetically elegant, non-greasy and non-tacky feel.
It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. No matter the origin, in small amounts (up to 1%) it’s a nice, gentle preservative. Has to be combined with some other nice preservatives, like potassium sorbate to be broad spectrum enough. Read all the geeky details about Glycerin here >> An easy-to-formulate, commonly used, nice to have ingredient that’s also called pro-vitamin B5. Its main job in skincare products is to moisturise the skin. It’s a humectant meaning that it can help the skin to attract water and then hold onto it. Another great thing about panthenol is that it has anti-inflammatory and skin protecting abilities. A study shows that it can reduce the irritation caused by less-nice other ingredients (e.g. If that wasn’t enough panthenol is also useful in nail and hair care products. As for the hair the hydration effect is also true there.
A little helper ingredient that works as a preservative. It works against bacteria and some species of fungi and yeast. It's often combined with IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol. A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5).
A type of sugar that's part of a moisturizing trio called Aquaxyl. You can read more about its magic properties at xylitylglucoside. 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. We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. But according to a comparative study done in 1995, citric acid has less skin improving magic properties than glycolic or lactic acid. A type of oil soluble vitamin F that is used as an emollient. Read more at ethyl oleate.
One of the many types of ceramides that can be found naturally in the upper layer of the skin. Ceramides make up about 50% of the goopy stuff that's between our skin cells and play a super important role in having a healthy skin barrier and keeping the skin hydrated. It's a Vitamin F Ethyl Ester, that is used as an emollient. A mainly oil-loving, vegetable raw material based ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier. It's an alternative, natural preservative that comes from radishes fermented with Leuconostoc kimchii, a lactic acid bacteria that has been used to make traditional Korean dish, kimchi.
PCA stands for Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid and though it might not sound like it, it is a thing that can be found naturally in our skin. Burdock root is a goodie plant extract that has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The sodium salt of lactic acid. It's a great skin moisturizer and also used to regulate the pH value of the cosmetic formula. We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Propanediol is a natural alternative for the often used and often bad-mouthed propylene glycol. We don't have description for this ingredient yet. A semi-essential (infants cannot synthesize it, but adults can) amino acid that is one of the primary building blocks of hair keratin and skin collagen. When it comes to sunflower and skincare, the seed oil is the common and well-known one.
A non-essential amino acid (important building block of collagen and elastin) that hydrates the skin. PCA stands for Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid and though it might not sound like it, it is a thing that can be found naturally in our skin. We don't have description for this ingredient yet. 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. We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
Galactoarabinan is a natural polysaccharide (a big carbohydrate molecule) that comes from the Larch trees. According to the manufacturer it can do all kinds of good in a formula: it can reduce trans-epidermal-water-loss (a fancy way of saying that it's moisturizing), improve the appearance of skin’s superficial fine lines, improve the uniformity and spreadability of a formulation and provides SPF enhancement. Read all the geeky details about Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract here >> The extract coming from the lovely herb, rosemary. It contains lots of chemicals, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, and diterpenes. Its main active is rosmarinic acid, a potent antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
A non-essential amino acid (the building blocks of skin proteins, like collagen or elastin), that the body can produce itself, but its production decreases with age. A non-essential amino acid (a building block of skin proteins like collagen or elastin) that hydrates the skin. It's a handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel. The blend of these two (caprylyl glycol + phenoxyethanol) is called Optiphen, which not only helps to keep your cosmetics free from nasty things for a long time but also gives a good feel to the finished product.
Super common little helper ingredient that helps 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'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 hydroxide and pretty much the same of what we wrote there applies here too. A super common and cheap fragrance ingredient. It's in many plants, e.g. rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and it's the main component (about 50-90%) of the peel oil of citrus fruits. It does smell nice but the problem is t...
Ingredients list snapshot: Aqua/Water/Eau, Pentylene Glycol, Dimethicone, Salvia Hispanica Seed Extract, PPG-3 Benzyl Ether Myristate, Cetyl Alcohol, Dimethiconol Meadowfoamate, Brassica Alcohol, Parfum/Fragrance, Polyquaternium-37, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Behentrimonium Chloride, Caprylyl Methicone, Benzyl Alcohol, Brassicyl Valinate Esylate, Glycerin, Panthenol, Chlorphenesin, Sodium Benzoate, Calcium Gluconate, Trehalose, Xylitol, Butylene Glycol, Hydrolyzed Rice Protein, Citric Acid, Polyquaternium-73, Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside, Isopropyl Alcohol, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract, Panthenyl Hydroxypropyl Steardimonium Chloride, Quaternium-95, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Ethyl Linoleate, Ceramide NP, Ethyl Oleate, Sorbitan Oleate, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Sodium PCA, Cinnamidopropyltrimonium Chloride, Arctium Lappa Root Extract, Hedera Helix (Ivy) Extract, Sodium Lactate, Trigonella Foenum-Graecum Seed Extract, Propanediol, Sodium Phosphate, Lactobacillus/Arundinaria Gigantea Leaf Ferment Filtrate, Arginine, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Extract, Aspartic Acid, PCA, Litchi Chinensis Fruit Extract, Citrullus Lanatus (Watermelon) Seed Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylic Acid, Galactoarabinan, Tocopherol, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Leontopodium Alpinum Extract, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein PG-Propyl Silanetriol, Glycine, Alanine, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Serine, Valine, Ethylhexylglycerin, Gossypium Herbaceum (Cotton) Seed Extract, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Sodium Hydroxide, Isoleucine, Proline, Threonine, Nigella Sativa Seed Extract, Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate, Histidine, Phenylalanine, Caprylyl Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Potassium Hydroxide, Limonene, Hexyl Cinnamal, Citral, Linalool.
These ingredients collectively shape the performance of an oribe fortifying serum: from humectants and emollients to preservatives, antioxidants, and specialty actives. The balance between humectants like panthenol and hyaluronic derivatives, occlusives like dimethicone, and texturizers and stabilizers helps achieve spreadability, skin and hair feel, and product longevity. The inclusion of plant extracts such as rosemary and green tea, and the presence of ceramides and hyaluronic acid derivatives point to an emphasis on hydration, barrier support, and sensory appeal for both scalp and strand health.
Potential benefits and considerations
Hydration and barrier support: humectants (panthenol, PCA, hyaluronic derivatives) attract water and help retain moisture, while ceramides and emollients support the skin’s barrier.
Texture and sensory feel: silicones (dimethicone, dimethiconol), emulsifiers, and conditioning agents create slip, gloss, and a silky finish on both skin and hair.
Preservation and stability: multiple preservatives (e.g., phenoxyethanol, potassium sorbate, caprylyl glycol) and buffering/pH-adjusting agents (sodium hydroxide, lye) work to keep the formulation safe and stable over time.
Potential irritants: fragrance and certain preservatives can be problematic for sensitive skin, so users with sensitivities may wish to patch-test products containing these ingredients.
tags: #oribe #fortifying #serum