Xi XiU Face Serum Anti Acne Ingredients (Explained) - INCIDecoder

Products Ingredients Decode INCI Login Register Login Register Products Ingredients Decode INCI Follow us on our new Insta page » Xi XiU Face Serum Anti Acne A serum that helps with acne and heals acne. Uploaded by: lauramhurni on 03/27/2021

Ingredients overview

Aqua, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Allantoin, Niacinamide, Phenoxyethanol, Hydroxyethylcellulose, DMDM Hydantoin, Hydrolyzed Algin, [more]Tetrasodium EDTA, Perfume, Sodium Acetate, PPG-26-Buteth-26, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Isopropyl Alcohol, Zinc Sulfate, Cellulose[less] Read more on how to read an ingredient list >> Compare Report Error Embed

Highlights

Key Ingredients

Anti-acne: Niacinamide Cell-communicating ingredient: Niacinamide Skin brightening: Niacinamide Skin-identical ingredient: Glycerin Soothing: Allantoin

Show all ingredients by function

Other Ingredients

Antimicrobial/antibacterial: Zinc Sulfate Buffering: Sodium Acetate Chelating: Tetrasodium EDTA Emulsifying: PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil Moisturizer/humectant: Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide Perfuming: Perfume, Isopropyl Alcohol Preservative: Phenoxyethanol, DMDM Hydantoin Solvent: Aqua, Butylene Glycol, Isopropyl Alcohol Surfactant/cleansing: PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil Viscosity controlling: Hydroxyethylcellulose, Isopropyl Alcohol, Cellulose

Skim through

Ingredient name	what-it-does	irr., com.	ID-Rating
Aqua	solvent
Glycerin	skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/​humectant	0, 0	superstar
Butylene Glycol	moisturizer/​humectant, solvent	0, 1
Allantoin	soothing	0, 0	goodie
Niacinamide	cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/​humectant	superstar
Phenoxyethanol	preservative
Hydroxyethylcellulose	viscosity controlling
DMDM Hydantoin	preservative	icky
Hydrolyzed Algin
Tetrasodium EDTA	chelating
Perfume	perfuming	icky
Sodium Acetate	buffering
PPG-26-Buteth-26
PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil	emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing
Isopropyl Alcohol	solvent, viscosity controlling, perfuming	0, 0	icky
Zinc Sulfate	antimicrobial/​antibacterial
Cellulose	viscosity controlling

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Xi XiU Face Serum Anti AcneIngredients explained

AquaAlso-called: Water | What-it-does: solvent

Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product.

It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.

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Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying.

One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.

Glycerin - superstarAlso-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 >> Butylene Glycol What-it-does: moisturizer/humectant, solvent | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 1

Butylene glycol, or let’s just call it BG, is a multi-tasking colorless, syrupy liquid. It’s a great pick for creating a nice feeling product.

BG’s main job is usually to be a solvent for the other ingredients. Other tasks include helping the product to absorb faster and deeper into the skin (penetration enhancer), making the product spread nicely over the skin (slip agent), and attracting water (humectant) into the skin.

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It’s an ingredient whose safety hasn’t been questioned so far by anyone (at least not that we know about). BG is approved by Ecocert and is also used enthusiastically in natural products. BTW, it’s also a food additive.

Allantoin - goodie What-it-does: soothing | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmetic products is produced synthetically.

It's not only soothing but it' also skin-softening and protecting and can promote wound healing.

Niacinamide - superstarAlso-called: vitamin B3, nicotinamide | What-it-does: cell-communicating ingredient, skin brightening, anti-acne, moisturizer/humectant

• A multi-functional skincare superstar with several proven benefits for the skin
• Great anti-aging, wrinkle smoothing ingredient used at 4-5% concentration
• Fades brown spots alone or in combination with amino sugar, acetyl glucosamine
• Increases ceramide synthesis that results in a stronger, healthier skin barrier and better skin hydration
• Can help to improve several skin conditions including acne, rosacea, and atopic dermatitis

Read all the geeky details about Niacinamide here >> Phenoxyethanol What-it-does: preservative

It’s pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, but even more importantly, it’s not a feared-by-everyone-mostly-without-scientific-reason paraben.

It’s not something new: it was introduced around 1950 and today it can be used up to 1% worldwide. It can be found in nature - in green tea - but the version used in cosmetics is synthetic.

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Other than having a good safety profile and being quite gentle to the skin it has some other advantages too. It can be used in many types of formulations as it has great thermal stability (can be heated up to 85°C) and works on a wide range of pH levels (ph 3-10).

It’s often used together with ethylhexylglycerin as it nicely improves the preservative activity of phenoxyethanol.

HydroxyethylcelluloseAlso-called: HEC | What-it-does: viscosity controlling, emulsion stabilising

A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautiful gel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component of the cell wall of green plants. It is compatible with most co-ingredients and gives a very good slip to the formulas.

DMDM Hydantoin - icky What-it-does: preservative

A controversial preservative that has formaldehyde-releasing properties. It works great against bacteria and also has mild fungicide abilities.

Cosmetic chemist, Colin wrote a great article about formaldehyde and DMDM Hydantoin. He writes that formaldehyde is the perfect example of "the dose makes the poison" principle. It's a natural stuff that can also be found in fresh fruits and vegetables, and eating it in tiny amounts is totally ok. However, in larger amounts (according to Wikipedia 30 mL of a solution containing 37% formaldehyde) it's deadly.

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The amount of formaldehyde used in cosmetics either neat or through formaldehyde-releasing preservatives is tiny. Probably that is why the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Broad concluded both in 1988 and in 2008 that DMDM Hydantoin is "safe as used in cosmetics".

However, Colins argues that in the case of formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, formaldehyde is released slowly and the skin has probably not evolved to deal with that. The lingering formaldehyde might be toxic to the Langerhans Cells that are important for the skin's defense system. Another potential issue is that formaldehyde-releasers might also release other things while reacting with amino acids in the skin that is probably the explanation why some people are not allergic to formaldehyde but are allergic to formaldehyde-releasing preservatives. These are all theories, far from proven facts, but we feel that there are some justified reasons why formaldehyde-releasing preservatives and Dmdm Hydantoin count as controversial.

All in all, it's up to you to decide if you wanna avoid this preservative group or not. If so, there are other, less risky and more skin-friendly options out there.

Hydrolyzed Algin

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Tetrasodium EDTA What-it-does: chelating

A handy helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.

Perfume - ickyAlso-called: Fragrance, Parfum;Parfum/Fragrance | What-it-does: perfuming

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.

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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!).

Sodium Acetate What-it-does: buffering

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

PPG-26-Buteth-26

A helper ingredient that usually comes to the formula coupled with PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil. The two together work as surfactants and oil solubilizers. It's a non-sticky duo that works at low concentration and is often used to solubilize fragrance components into water-based formulas.

PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil What-it-does: emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing

A mildly viscous, amber-colored liquid with fatty odor, made from Castor Oil and polyethylene glycol (PEG).

If it were a person, we’d say, it’s agile, diligent & multifunctional. It’s mostly used as an emulsifier and surfactant but most often it is used to solubilize fragrances into water-based formulas.

Isopropyl Alcohol - icky What-it-does: solvent, viscosity controlling, perfuming | Irritancy: 0 | Comedogenicity: 0

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Zinc Sulfate What-it-does: antimicrobial/antibacterial, astringent

We don't have description for this ingredient yet.

Cellulose What-it-does: viscosity controlling, absorbent/mattifier

A natural polymer (big molecule from repeated subunits) that can be found in the cell wall of green plants. It is a natural and sustainable helper ingredient that can improve the absorption of the formula and it also reduces oiliness on the skin. It is also used as a sensory additive and thickening agent.

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You may also want to take a look at...

what‑it‑does

solvent

Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products. [more]

what‑it‑does	skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant
irritancy, com.	0, 0

A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health. [more]

what‑it‑does	moisturizer/humectant | solvent
irritancy, com.	0, 1

An often used glycol that works as a solvent, humectant, penetration enhancer and also gives a good slip to the products. [more]

what‑it‑does	soothing
irritancy, com.	0, 0

Super common soothing ingredient. It can be found naturally in the roots & leaves of the comfrey plant, but more often than not what's in the cosmetic products is produced synthetically. It's not only soothing but it' [more]

what‑it‑does

cell-communicating ingredient | skin brightening | anti-acne | moisturizer/humectant

A multi-functional skincare superstar that has clinically proven anti-aging, skin lightening, anti-inflammatory and barrier repair properties. [more]

what‑it‑does

preservative

Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide. [more]

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A nice little helper ingredient that can thicken up cosmetic products and create beautiful gel formulas. It's derived from cellulose, the major component of the cell wall of green plants. [more]

what‑it‑does

preservative

A controversial preservative that has formaldehyde-releasing properties. It works great against bacteria and also has mild fungicide abilities.  [more]

what‑it‑does

chelating

A helper ingredient that helps to neutralize the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes.

what‑it‑does

perfuming

The generic term for nice smelling stuff put into cosmetic products so that the end product also smells nice. It is made up of 30 to 50 chemicals on average. [more]

what‑it‑does

buffering

A helper ingredient that usually comes to the formula coupled with PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil. The two together work as surfactants and oil solubilizers. [more]

what‑it‑does

emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing

A mildly viscous, amber-colored liquid that works as an emulsifier and surfactant. [more]

what‑it‑does	solvent | viscosity controlling | perfuming
irritancy, com.	0, 0

what‑it‑does

antimicrobial/antibacterial

what‑it‑does

viscosity controlling

A natural and sustainable helper ingredient that can improve the absorption of the formula and it also reduces oiliness on the skin. It is also used as a sensory additive and thickening agent. We do a Best of INCIDecoder email once a month with the most interesting products and ingredients we bump into. An error has occurred. Please try again later! Click below to subscribe: Thanks. :) You are almost done: please check your mailbox to confirm your email! *INCI is a list of the standardized and internationally accepted names used in the declaration of ingredients on cosmetic and personal care products. It is published by the Personal Care Product Council. Copyright 2026 | About