What's actually in your skincare

Arthlings · Label Literacy

What's actually in your skincare

We run in-school sessions teaching kids to read a label before they trust it. Here's the same check, applied across all 16 of our products — the swaps we make everywhere, and a full index of what's really in each one.

Four swaps we make everywhere

Preservative
Methylparaben Propylparaben
→
Germall Plus Geogard ECO

Parabens are cheap and effective, which is exactly why they're everywhere — but they're also linked to hormone disruption and don't break down cleanly once they're rinsed away. Germall Plus and Geogard ECO do the same job, and only show up where a water-based product actually needs one — our balms and soaps don't.

Cleansing — two systems, both sulfate-free
SLS SLES
→
Saponified plant oils Coco Glucoside Decyl Glucoside CAPB SLSA

Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate foam hard and strip harder. Our nine bar soaps clean the old-fashioned way — real oils turned to soap, no sulfates involved. Our Bhringraj Shampoo uses a coconut-derived glucoside system instead. Either way: no SLS, no SLES.

Fragrance
Parfum / "Fragrance"
→
Essential Oils

"Parfum" is one word standing in for a mix a brand never has to disclose. Every scent across our catalog is a named essential oil chosen for that product — rosemary in the shampoo bar, ylang ylang in the body butter, clove in the herb bath soap. Nothing unnamed, anywhere.

Color
Synthetic Dye / FD&C Colors
→
Beetroot Alkanet Root Annatto Mica

Our Beetroot Lip Balm gets its pink tint from beetroot and alkanet root. Our Plant Sindoor is just annatto seed powder and mica — two ingredients, no lead. Where a soap gets its color from an ingredient doing double duty (turmeric, activated charcoal, French pink clay), that's in the full index below.

Read any label in 3 steps

  1. 1
    Read the first five ingredients. Ingredients are listed by quantity — the first five are most of what you're putting on your skin. Everything after that is mostly trace amounts.
  2. 2
    Can't pronounce it? Look it up. Not every long name is a red flag — but it takes fifteen seconds to check, and that habit alone catches most of what's worth avoiding.
  3. 3
    Short list, fewer places to hide. It's not a rule without exceptions, but a label with eight ingredients you recognize is usually a better sign than one with thirty you don't.

The full catalog

Every product we make, grouped by type, with its real signature ingredients — not the marketing name, the actual thing in the bottle.

Hair Care
Coconut Rosemary Herbal Shampoo Bargoat milk & coconut milk soap base, rosemary, tea tree
Bhringraj Shampoobhringraj, shikakai, reetha, amla, coco/decyl glucoside
Soaps
French Pink SoapFrench pink clay, Himalayan salt, rose water
Rose & Shea Butter Soapshea butter base, honey, boswellia resin
Turmeric Milk Cold Process Soapturmeric, goat milk, neem, sandalwood
Herb Bath Natural Soaptulsi, clove, neem, aloe, honey
Papaya Cucumber Cold Process Soappapaya, carrot, cucumber, niacinamide, vitamin C
Charcoal & Dead Sea Mud Soapactivated charcoal, Dead Sea mud, eucalyptus
Detox Charcoal Natural Soapactivated charcoal, honey, sulphate-free base
Rice & Aloe Vera Cold Process Soaprice water, rosehip oil, grapeseed oil, oats
Honey Lemonade Natural Soaphoney, lemon oil, orange oil
Face & Body
Coconut Body Buttershea, cocoa butter, jojoba, lavender, geranium
Beetroot Lip Balmbeeswax, cocoa butter, beetroot, alkanet root
Pure & Organic Rose Water100% steam-distilled Rosa damascena — one ingredient
Organic Rose Gelrose water, aloe, alkanet root, almond oil
Aloevera Gelaloe vera extract, glycerin, vitamin E
Color
Plant Sindoor – Classic Redannatto seed powder, mica — two ingredients
Arthlings

This is the whole catalog, honestly listed. Screenshot it before your next skincare buy, or come back any time. Have an ingredient you want checked? Send it our way.