I've talked about using an ingredients-based approach to building your skincare routine here, and again here. In Part 5 of TG2KB, we'll cover some useful tools that will help you discover new products to consider when building or adding to your routine.
Today's post will be on CosDNA.com a great way to discover popular products that have a strong international presence.
What is CosDNA?
It's a site that crowdsources ingredients lists for different beauty and personal care products. If a retailer doesn't list ingredients for products they stock, oftentimes they can be found at CosDNA.
You can simply enter a product name in the search bar to pull up the results.
The site also has a secondary function that analyzes ingredients lists. CosDNA can reveal the function of an ingredient, whether it is likely to trigger acne or skin irritation. There is even a level meter for the safety of each ingredient.
All in all, it's a very useful tool. It has both Asian and Western products, so I turn to it often. One of its pitfalls however, is that it often doesn't have ingredients lists for new, or less popular Korean (or Asian) products. Next week, I'll return with another resource that can help when you're lusting after a Kbeauty new release, or something that is a bit more underground.
The Best Kept Secret of CosDNA -
You can use it to FIND the PRODUCTS that HAVE the INGREDIENTS You WANT
STEP 1. Easy. Go to CosDNA.com!
STEP 2. Click on the Ingredients tab in the menu bar.
STEP 3. Enter the ingredient you want to search for. Probably want to choose something sexier than glycerin like saccharomyces yeast ferment or something. HOT. Hit Send.
STEP 4. CosDNA will pull up a list of similar ingredients. Click the one you want.
STEP 5. You'll be taken to an Ingredient Detail Page. Look over to the right hand side. You'll see a list of products that contain this ingredient. Click on (for more information) for you know... more information!
STEP 6. You'll be taken to the REAL Ingredient Search page. Here you can include up to 5 ingredients you would like in a product, and exclude up to 5 ingredients you definitely don't want in the product.
STEP 7. So let's do an example. We want Snail Secretion Filtrate, and we don't want Glycerin (listed as Glycerol in the CosDNA database). Don't worry, as you start typing out the ingredient you want to enter, CosDNA will automatically suggest ingredients that may match your search term. Kind of like what happens when you enter things in Google search. Let's also exclude Hyaluronic Acid because maybe you're sensitive to it. (Not sure if that is actually possible, but someone asked for this example). Click Submit and BAM.
This particular search landed me 5 pages of potential products to buy.
Also, the whole Asian beauty community would thank you if you helped with the upkeep of CosDNA by submitting product ingredient lists yourself.
Uploading Product Ingredients Listings to CosDNA
You can add product ingredients lists by navigating to "Analyze Cosmetics", pasting in a comma-separated list of ingredients, naming it, and pressing save!
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| Erborian is a French-Korean hybrid brand. Happy Bastille Day! |
READ THE NEXT TG2KB INSTALLMENTS
INTRO TO KBEAUTY
Part 1. Introduction to Korean Skincare
Part 2. Introduction to Korean Makeup
BRANDS & STORES
Part 3. The Brands
Part 4. The Retailers
-> Link to a Price Comparison Search Engine (Results from verified sellers only)
RESEARCHING KBEAUTY PRODUCTS
Part 5a. Researching Products; How to Figure Out What You Want to Buy - CosDNA, Popular Products w/ International Stockists
Part 5b. Researching Products; How to Figure Out What You Want to Buy - AllofCosmetics, Korean Products w/o Strong International Presence
Part 5c. Researching Products; How to Figure Out What You Want to Buy - Blogs and Youtube Channels
KBEAUTY STARTER SKINCARE ROUTINES
Part 6. My Skincare Routine & Reasoning
Part 7. Wishlists, or "Make Me a Routine"
"ADVANCED" K-BEAUTY
Part 8. "Advanced" KBeauty - Buying Services & Korean-Korean E-tailers
Using Avecko by SnowWhite&thePear
Using 11st by SnowWhite&thePear
Part 9. Navigating the Korean web: Naver Blogs, Korean Youtubers. Coming soon.
Part 10. Guide to the Hwahae App
Part 11. Beauty Shopping in Seoul
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