Ag
Agar
Agar
A seaweed-based thickener and binder.
What it does
It comes from red algae and is mostly agarose. It’s there for texture, not to change your skin.
The evidence, graded
expert consensusUS safety reviewers (2015) assessed 106 polysaccharide gums and starches, which products use to thicken. They judged 105 safe as used, agar, potassium, calcium and propylene glycol alginate and sodium carrageenan included; for hydrolyzed carrageenan they had too little data. They were concerned about chemicals used to modify some of them and asked makers to limit impurities.Johnson 2015 · Cosmetic Ingredient Review ↗
Graded per the methodology: strong · moderate · emerging · expert consensus. A weak source on a strong claim gets the weaker label.
Browse all 1238 ingredients — grouped by what they do, each with whatever evidence we can cite.
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