[rachpreach]

When looking for face lotion, I am always confused on the active and inactive ingredients. I recently bought some anti-wrinkle lotion that said it had retinol in it but it listed it in the inactive section. Does that mean it will contribute nothing for my skin?

 

[lynn]

The truth is that it sounds weird to me that Retin A would be listed as an inactive ingredient. I'm not sure. But just so you know, most of the time when companies write that they have vitamins and active ingredients in the product, the amount that is actually in the product is less than 0.5%. Which means that it doesn't do much for your skin!

 

[Marie Esselstein]

If you are looking for something with vitamin A or retinol and it's listed under "inactive ingredients" take the product back.

 

[martha]

actually I did some research on this and the FDA only allows companies to post the drug ingredients under the "Active ingredients" label. Seems lot of companies break this rule and list things like retinol as "active", but really the FDA doesnt allow this. So from what I understand, if a product is not classified as a drug by the FDA, then legally they can't list anything under "active ingredients" on the label. Here is what I found on the FDA website:

About the Inactive Ingredients Database

 

[Smokey]

Usually inactive ingredients are ingredients such as Water, emulsifiers, colors, flavors, etc., non of which are going to play an active role in achieving the promises of the product.

An 'active ingredient' needs to contribute in some way to the promises of a product.

This is a simple way of looking at it but should give you an idea of how this active - inactive is to be interpreted.

 

[skincareaddict2011]

I strongly believe that if there is no active ingredients i will not do anything to your skin for anti-aging, if it is a cream it will moisturize the skin only. This is why some skin care line are super expensive because they have active ingredients that you need to see the results!