Clinique Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm Whole Lotta Honey ingredients (Explained) (2024)

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.

Caprylic/​Capric Triglyceride

What-it-does: emollient

Vegetable Oil\Olus Oil\Huile Végétale

Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax\Candelilla Cera\Cire De Candelilla

Beeswax\Cera Alba\Cire D'Abeille

Also-called: Beeswax;Cera Alba | What-it-does: emollient, viscosity controlling, emulsifying, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0-2

It's the yellow, solid stuff that you probably know from beeswax candles. It's a natural material produced by honey bees to build their honeycomb.

As for skincare, it's used as an emollient and thickening agent. It's super common in lip balms and lipsticks.

Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil

Paraffin

What-it-does: viscosity controlling, perfuming

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter - goodie

Unless you live under a rock you must have heard about shea butter. It's probably the most hyped up natural butter in skincare today.It comes from the seeds of African Shea or KariteTreesand used as a magic moisturizer and emollient.

But it's not only a simple emollient, it regenerates and soothes the skin,protects it from external factors (such as UV rays or wind) and is also rich in antioxidants (among others vitamin A, E, F, quercetin and epigallocatechin gallate). If you are looking for rich emollient benefits + more, shea is hard to beat.

Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil - goodie

Jojoba is a drought resistant evergreen shrub native to South-western North America. It's known and grown for jojoba oil, the golden yellow liquid coming from the seeds (about 50% of the weight of the seeds will be oil).

At first glance, it seems like your average emollient plant oil: it looks like an oil and it's nourishing and moisturizing to the skin but if we dig a bit deeper, it turns out that jojoba oil is really special and unique: technically - or rather chemically - it's not an oil but awax ester (and calling it an oil is kind of sloppy).

Microcrystalline Wax\Cera Microcristallina\Cire Microcristalline

What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising

Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter - goodie

The soft solid, off-white to ivory butter or oil coming from the kernel (the seed inside of the seed) of the Mango. Similar to many other plant oils, it's a great moisturizing and nourishing emollient oil. It has medium spreadability and gives skin a creamy-dry feel.

It's loaded with a bunch of good-for-the-skin stuff: it contains almost all of the essential amino acids, has several antioxidant phenolic compounds (including famous antioxidant ferulic acid) and is a rich source of nourishingfatty acids (like stearic and oleic acid).

All in all, a skin goodie especially for dry skin types.

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter Extract - goodie

What-it-does: emollient, soothing

Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil - goodie

The emollient plant oil coming from the seeds of the white flowering plant called meadowfoam.Meadowfoam Oil has a unique fatty acid composition with 95% of it being long chain fatty acids (eicosenoic acid C20:1 - 61%, docosenoic acid C22:1 - 16% and docosadienoic acid C22:2 - 18%) that make the oil extraordinarily stable. It also contains antioxidant components such as vitamin E as well asphytosterols.

Apart fromMeadowfoam Oil's crazy stability, the oil is described as non-greasy, rapidly absorbed and having a similar skin feel to more often used jojoba oil. The oil is ideal for products where a soft, smooth, silky feel is required whether it be on skin or hair.

Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil - goodie

You probably know olive oil from the kitchen as a great and healthy option for salad dressing but it's also agreat and healthy option to moisturize and nourish the skin, especially if it's on the dry side.

Similar to other emollient plant oils, it's loaded with nourishing fatty acids: oleic is the main component (55-83%), and also contains linoleic (3.5-20%) and palmitic acids (7-20%). It also contains antioxidant polyphenols, tocopherols (types of vitamin E) and carotenoids and it's one of the best plant sources of skin-identical emollient, Squalene.

Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil - goodie

Sunflower does not need a big intro as you probably use it in the kitchen as cooking oil, or you munch on the seeds as a healthy snack or you adore its big, beautifulyellow flower during the summer - or you do all of these and probably even more. And by even more we mean putting it all overyour face as sunflower oil is one of the most commonly used plant oils in skincare.

It’s a real oldie: expressed directly from the seeds, the oil is used not for hundreds but thousands of years. According to The National Sunflower Association, there is evidencethat both the plant and its oil were used by American Indians in the area of Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC. Do the math: it's more than 5000 years – definitely an oldie.

Tocopherol - goodie

• Primary fat-soluble antioxidant in our skin
• Significant photoprotection against UVB rays
• Vit C + Vit E work in synergy and provide great photoprotection
• Has emollient properties
• Easy to formulate, stable and relatively inexpensive

Read all the geeky details about Tocopherol here >>

Glyceryl Stearate

What-it-does: emollient, emulsifying | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1-2

A super common, waxy, white, solid stuff that helps water and oil to mix together, gives body to creams and leaves the skin feeling soft and smooth.

Chemically speaking, it is the attachment of a glycerin molecule to the fatty acid calledstearic acid. It can be produced from most vegetable oils (in oils three fattyacidmolecules are attached to glycerin instead of just one like here) in a pretty simple, "green" process that is similar to soap making. It's readily biodegradable.

It also occurs naturally in our body and is used as a food additive. As cosmetic chemistColins writes it, "its safety really is beyond any doubt".

Mica

A super versatile and common mineral powder that comes in different particle sizes. It is a multi-tasker used to improve skin feel, increase product slip, give the product light-reflecting properties, enhance skin adhesion or serve as an anti-caking agent.

It is also the most commonly used "base" material for layered composite pigments such as pearl-effect pigments. In this case, mica is coated with one or moremetal oxides (most commonly titanium dioxide) to achieve pearl effect via the physical phenomenon known as interference.

Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891)

Iron Oxides (Ci 77491)

A bit of a sloppy ingredient name as it covers not one butthree pigments: red, yellow and black iron oxide.

The triois invaluable for "skin-colored" makeup products (think your foundation and pressed powder) as blendingthese three shades carefully can produce almost any shade of natural-looking flesh tones.

Iron Oxides (Ci 77492)

A bit of a sloppy ingredient name as it covers not one butthree pigments: red, yellow and black iron oxide.

The triois invaluable for "skin-colored" makeup products (think your foundation and pressed powder) as blendingthese three shades carefully can produce almost any shade of natural-looking flesh tones.

Iron Oxides (Ci 77499)

A bit of a sloppy ingredient name as it covers not one butthree pigments: red, yellow and black iron oxide.

The triois invaluable for "skin-colored" makeup products (think your foundation and pressed powder) as blendingthese three shades carefully can produce almost any shade of natural-looking flesh tones.

Red 7 Lake (Ci 15850)

Blue 1 Lake (Ci 42090)

Yellow 6 Lake (Ci 15985)

Yellow 5 Lake (Ci 19140)

Ci 19140 or Tartrazine is a super common colorant in skincare, makeup, medicine & food. It’s a synthetic lemon yellow that'sused alone or mixed with other colors for special shades.

FDA saysit's possible, but rare, to have an allergic-type reaction to a color additive. As an example, it mentions that Ci 19140may cause itching and hives in some people but the colorant is always labeled so that you can avoid it if youare sensitive.

Red 28 Lake (Ci 45410)

A cosmetic colorant used as a reddish pigment.

Some version of it is a pH-sensitive dye that enables a colorless lip balm to turn red/pink upon application.

Red 6 (Ci 15850)

Red 22 Lake (Ci 45380)

Red 21 (Ci 45380)

Copper Powder (Ci 77400)

Bronze Powder (Ci 77400)

Red 30 (Ci 73360)

Orange 5 (Ci 45370)

Red 30 Lake (Ci 73360)

Bismuth Oxychloride (Ci 77163)

Bismuth Oxychloride has been around since the 1950s and it was one of the first synthetic materials to give a pearl-like effect in cosmetic products. It is a white powder with a fabulous sheen and a nice skin feel and it is stillvery popular in decorative cosmetics.

It has one major drawback: it is sensitive to light. Upon prolonged UV exposure, it can lose its sheen and become gray.

Manganese Violet (Ci 77742)

Red 7 (Ci 15850)

Red 27 (Ci 45410)

A cosmetic colorant used as a reddish pigment.

Some version of it is a pH-sensitive dye that enables a colorless lip balm to turn red/pink upon application.

Red 33 Lake (Ci 17200)