Clay and glow Micellar Makeup Remover ingredients (Explained) (2025)

Read more on how to read an ingredient list >>

Alcohol Free

Exfoliant: Lactic Acid

Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin

Soothing: Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice

Other Ingredients

Aqua/​Water

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.

Cocamidopropyl Betaine

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing

Super common ingredient in all kinds of cleansing products: face and body washes, shampoos and foam baths.

Number one reason for its popularity has to do with bubbles. Everyone loves bubbles. And cocamidopropyl betaine is great at stabilizing them.

Coco-Glucoside

What-it-does: surfactant/cleansing

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice - goodie

Also-called: Aloe Vera | What-it-does: soothing, moisturizer/humectant

Aloe Vera is one of today’s magic plants. It does have some very nice properties indeed, though famous dermatologist Leslie Baumann warns us in her book that most of the evidence is anecdotal and the plant might be a bit overhyped.

What research does confirm about Aloe is that it’s a great moisturizer and has several anti-inflammatory (among others contains salicylates, polysaccharides, magnesium lactate and C-glucosyl chromone) as well as some antibacterial components. It also helps wound healing and skin regeneration in general. All in all definitely a goodie.

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 >>

Betaine - goodie

What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant

A sugar beet-derivedamino acid derivative with nice skin protection and moisturization properties. Betaine's special thing is being an osmolyte, a molecule that helps to control cell-water balance. It is also a natural osmoprotectant, meaning that it attracts water away from the protein surface and thusprotects them from denaturation and increases their thermodynamic stability.

It also gives sensorial benefits to the formulaand when used in cleansers, it helps to make them milder and gentler.

Sodium Chloride

Also-called: Salt | What-it-does: viscosity controlling

Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. Normal, everyday table salt.

If (similar to us) you are in the weird habit of reading the label on your shower gel while taking a shower, you might have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the ingredient list. The reason for this is that salt acts as a fantastic thickener in cleansing formulas created with ionic cleansing agents(aka surfactants) such as Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture.

Parfum - 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!).

Lactic Acid - superstar

What-it-does: exfoliant, moisturizer/humectant, buffering

• It’s the second most researched AHA after glycolic acid
• It gently lifts off dead skin cells to reveal newer, fresher, smoother skin
• It also has amazing skin hydrating properties
• In higher concentration (10% and up) it improves skin firmness, thickness and wrinkles
• Choose a product where you know the concentration and pH value because these two greatly influence effectiveness
• Don’t forget to use your sunscreen (in any case but especially so next to an AHA product)

Read all the geeky details about Lactic Acid here >>

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.

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.