Essence Birthday Bomb Shiny Lipgloss ingredients (Explained) (2025)

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Alcohol Free

Antioxidant: Tocopheryl Acetate

Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin

Other Ingredients

Ethylhexyl Stearate

What-it-does: emollient

Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil

Castor oil is sourced from the castor bean plant native to tropical areas in Eastern Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. It is an age-old ingredient (it’s over 4,000 years old!) with many uses including as a shoe polish, food additive and motor lubricant. You would be reasonable to think that putting shoe polish on your face wouldn’t be the best idea, but it turns out castor oil has some unique properties that make it a stalwart in thick and gloss-giving formulas (think lipsticks and highlighters).

So what is so special about it? The answer is its main fatty acid, called ricinoleic acid (85-95%). Unlike other fatty acids, ricinoleic acid has an extra water-loving part (aka -OH group) on its fatty chain that gives Castor Oil several unique properties. First, it is thicker than other oils, then its solubility is different (e.g. dissolves in alcohol but not in mineral oil), and it allows all kindsof chemical modificationsother oils do not, hence the lots ofCastor oil-derived ingredients. It is alsomore glossy than other oils, in fact,itcreates the highest gloss of all natural oils when applied to the skin. Other than that, it is a very effective emollient and occlusive that reduces skin moisture loss so it is quite common in smaller amounts in moisturizers.

While it is very unlikely (and this is true for pretty much every ingredient), cases of reactions to castor oil have been reported, so if your skin is sensitive, it never hurts to patch test.

Silica Dimethyl Silylate

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising

It's a water-hating, fumed silica that works as a thickener for oils and it can also suspend particles in oils.

Also, increases thegloss of castor oil that can be useful for makeup products.

Polyglyceryl-2 Isostearate/​Dimer Dilinoleate Copolymer

What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling

Parfum (Fragrance) - 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!).

Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil - goodie

The emollient plant oil that comes from almonds. Similar to other plant oils, it is loaded with skin-nourishing fatty acids (oleic acid - 55-86% and linoleic acid 7-35%) and contains several other skin goodies such as antioxidant vitamin E and vitamin B versions.

It's a nice, basic oil that is often used duetoits greatsmoothing, softening and moisturizing properties. It's alsoparticularly good at treating dry brittle nails (source).

Stevia Rebaudiana Extract

Tocopheryl Acetate

It’s the most commonly used version of pure vitamin E in cosmetics. You can read all about the pure form here. This one is the so-called esterified version.

According to famous dermatologist, Leslie Baumann while tocopheryl acetate is more stable and has a longer shelf life, it’s also more poorly absorbed by the skin and may not have the same awesome photoprotective effects as pure Vit E.

Calcium Sodium Borosilicate

Phenylpropanol

What-it-does: perfuming, solvent

Synthetic Fluorphlogopite

Also-called: Synthetic Mica | What-it-does: viscosity controlling

Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is the synthetic version of the super commonly used mineral, Mica. The advantage of being synthetic is that it has amore consistent quality, fewer impurities and an even lower heavy metal content than Mica (not that Mica's heavy metal content is high). It is also more transparent and has improved light reflection.

The two main use cases forSynthetic Fluorphlogopite is being used neat as a superior "filler" orskin tone enhancer or it can also serve as a base for multi-layered, composite pigments such as pearl effect pigments where it is coated with one or more layers of metal oxide, most commonly titanium dioxide.

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 >>

Alumina

Also-called: Aluminum Oxide, Al2O3 | What-it-does: viscosity controlling, absorbent/mattifier, abrasive/scrub

A multi-functionalhelper ingredient that's used mainly as a pigment carrier. The pigment can be an inorganic sunscreen(such as titanium dioxide) or a colorant that is blended withalumina platelets and then often coated with some kind of silicone (such as triethoxycaprylylsilane). This special treatment enables pigments to be evenly dispersed in the formulaand to be spread out easily and evenly upon application. It is super useful both for mineral sunscreens as well as for makeup products.

Other than that, alumina can also beused as an absorbent (sometimes combined with the mattifying powder called polymethylsilsesquioxane), a viscosity controlling or an opacifying (reduces the transparency of the formula) agent.

Benzyl Alcohol

What-it-does: preservative, perfuming, solvent, viscosity controlling

It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It can be naturally found in fruits and teas but can also be made synthetically.

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 sorbateto be broad spectrum enough.

In high amounts, it can be a skin irritant, but don’t worry, it’s never used in high amounts.

Vanillin

Tin Oxide

Also-called: CI 77861, Tin Dioxide | What-it-does: colorant, abrasive/scrub, viscosity controlling

Far from the tin cans you find in the supermarket, Tin Oxide is mostly used when dealing with so-called effect pigments, tricky composite pigments that can do color travel (change color depending on the viewingangle) or give multiple color effect.

It's often found alongside Mica (as a base material) and Titanium Dioxide (as a coating) to give a glossy, pearlescent effect. Together, they make up a trademarked technologycalled RonaFlairBlanace from the German manufacturer Merck. According to their info, this combination can balance out undesirable tones in the skin, making it a popular choice for brightening products and highlighters.

Other than that, CosIng (the official EU INCI database) lists its uses asbeing a bulking agent (to increase the volume of products), as well as a physical exfoliant or an opacifying agent, but being part of composite effect pigments is a much more common use case.

Ci 77891 (Titanium Dioxide)