How to look for "bad" ingredients- Quick guide

Silicones

Silicones generally end in -cone, -conol, -col, or -xane If any silicone name has "PEG" or "PPG" in front of it, it is water-soluble and will not build up.

So check out the list below and notice the endings. These are all silicones you'd want to avoid:

• Cetearyl Methicone

• Cetyl Dimethicone

• Dimethicone

• Dimethiconol

• Stearyl Dimethicone

• Amodimethicone

• Cyclomethicone/Cyclopentasiloxane

• Trimethylsilylamodimethicone

Not so hard, right? So now lets take a look at some oils/waxes that are generally frowned upon.

Here is a list of waxes and non-natural oils to avoid:

• Castor oil

• Mineral oil (parrifidium liquidium)

• Petrolatum

• Waxes: bees wax, candelia wax, etc.

So when you've got a product in your hand, you now know what to look for when you're wanting to avoiding buildup.

For sulfates, there really isn't a cheat sheet, other than looking up the ingredients and comparing to your product of choice.

Here is a list of sulfates to avoid:

• Alkylbenzene sulfonates

• Alkyl Benzene Sulfonate

• Ammonium laureth sulfate

• Ammonium lauryl sulfate

• Ammonium Xylenesulfonate

• Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate

• Sodium cocoyl sarcosinate

• Sodium laureth sulfate

• Sodium lauryl sulfate

• Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate

• Sodium myreth sulfate

• Sodium Xylenesulfonate

• TEA-dodecylbenzenesulfonate

• Ethyl PEG-15 cocamine sulfate

• Dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate

I hope this helps. I know when I first started CG, I was overwhelmed... but once you know what to look for, it isn't as difficult to look up ingredients in the store. :)