What is in the Daily Cream, and why

An ingredient list is printed from the largest amount to the smallest, down to one percent; below that the order is free. Read the Daily Cream’s from the top and you read the cream itself: mostly water and glycerin, a few oils and butters, and the small things that hold it together and keep it fresh.

Here are all twelve, and what each one does in the jar.

The base: water and glycerin

Aqua (Water) carries everything else and makes the cream light. Glycerin draws water into the top layer of the skin and holds it there, so your face feels hydrated rather than just coated.

The softness: oils and butter

• Squalane: a light, stable oil that sinks in fast and leaves skin soft without shine
• Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride: a thin oil from coconut that helps the cream glide
• Cetearyl Alcohol: a fatty alcohol, not the drying kind, that gives the cream its body
• Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter: the cushion you feel as you press it in

The finish: panthenol and sodium hyaluronate

Panthenol helps skin feel smooth. Sodium Hyaluronate holds water on the surface of the skin, which is why your face still feels soft at lunchtime.

The small print, and why it is there

A cream made with water needs a preservative, or it would spoil within weeks of opening. Phenoxyethanol with Ethylhexylglycerin keeps it fresh for twelve months after you open the jar. Tocopherol, a form of vitamin E, keeps the oils from going stale, and Xanthan Gum keeps the cream smooth so it does not separate.

What we left out

No fragrance and no essential oils: the faint scent is the shea butter. No color, and nothing added only so a label could name it. Twelve ingredients was not a goal; it is simply what the cream needed. The Gel Cleanser, the Milk Essence and the Face Oil list theirs in full too, and our story tells where shea, squalane, oat and aloe come in.