Aqua (Water)
Aqua · INCI Aqua
Look at the ingredient list on almost any moisturiser and the first word is Aqua. Ingredient lists run in order of quantity, so that means water is the largest single thing in the pot. Ours included. It seems worth explaining, rather than leaving you to draw the obvious and wrong conclusion.
It is the first ingredient on our labels, which means there is more of it than anything else. We would rather explain why than hope you skim past.
What it is
A moisturiser is an emulsion, which is a suspension of oil in water held together by an emulsifier. That is not a compromise or a shortcut, it is what a cream is. Take the water away and you have an oil, which behaves differently, feels differently and does a different job.
The water also does work of its own. Several of our ingredients only dissolve in water and would have nowhere to go without it: the glycerin, the inulin, the barley ferment, the chlorella active. And the water phase is much of why a cream spreads easily, sinks in and does not leave you glossy.
So yes, water is the largest ingredient. It is also the reason the product works the way it does, and we are not going to be coy about it just because "mostly water" sounds like an insult.
What it does in our formulas
Two things, and neither of them is drying your skin out.
It is the half of the cream that is not oil
A moisturiser is an emulsion: oil droplets suspended in water, or the other way round. The water is not padding around the oils, it is one of the two halves that make the thing work. It carries the glycerin, the inulin, the ferment and the chlorella, none of which dissolve in oil. And it is why your cream spreads and sinks rather than sitting on the surface like an oil would.
Well characterisedWhat the research does not show
Water attracts a peculiar kind of scorn in skincare marketing, and it is worth taking apart.
Marketed as Water is a cheap filler, and a good product would use less
Marketed as Waterless skincare is more concentrated, and therefore better
We use water because we are making a cream, and a cream needs water. It is on the label first because there is more of it than anything else, and we publish the exact figure like everything else. If you would rather have an oil, buy an oil. This is not that, and it is not pretending to be.
On the label and in the range
Aqua is the first ingredient on every one of our labels, because ingredient lists are ordered by quantity and there is more water in a cream than anything else. That is true of nearly every moisturiser you have ever bought, whether or not the brand mentions it. We publish the exact percentage on each product page, as we do for everything, including this.
Is it suitable for me?
The water we use is purified to cosmetic standard before it goes anywhere near a formula. It is suitable for every skin type and every routine, and it is the one ingredient in the range that will not surprise anybody.
As with anything new, if your skin reacts easily it is worth patch testing first.
The research behind this page
We review the published literature. We do not conduct the studies below.
- Man MQ, Elias PM. Stratum corneum hydration regulates key epidermal function and serves as an indicator and contributor to other conditions. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2019;33(1):15-16. →