Understanding the Components of a Skincare Formulation: Actives, Bases and Texture Agents

If you've ever flipped over a skincare bottle and looked at the ingredients list, you might have found yourself wondering: Can I just copy this to create my own product?

It’s a fair question — and one we hear often from aspiring skincare founders.

But the truth is, skincare formulation is more than just a list of ingredients. Behind every effective, stable, and pleasant-to-use product is a carefully balanced formula — one that considers function, feel, safety, and performance.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the core building blocks of a skincare formula and why understanding each role is essential for anyone looking to create their own product.

1. The Base: Your Foundation

Every skincare formula starts with a base — usually made up of water, oils, or a combination of both. This base determines the texture and type of the product (e.g. toner, cream, serum, gel, balm).

Common base components:

• Water (Aqua): Water is the most common base in skincare and appears as the first ingredient in most formulations — from toners and serums to emulsions and gels. It acts as the primary solvent, dissolving other water-soluble ingredients and helping distribute them evenly across the skin. In Korean skincare, water is often enhanced with botanical waters or fermented extracts (like birch sap or rice water) for added skin benefits.

• Oils & Butters: Ingredients like shea butter, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, squalane, and mango butter provide emollience, nourishment, and barrier support. They are commonly used in moisturizing creams, lotions, balms and cleansing oils. Basically, they form a protective layer on the skin, helping to lock in hydration while smoothing and softening the skin's surface. Note that the type of oil used also affects skin compatibility (eg. oily vs. dry skin types), product weight and finish (eg. rich vs. lightweight finish).

• Humectants: Humectants are ingredients that attract moisture from the environment or deeper layers of the skin into the outermost layer (the stratum corneum). Common examples include glycerin, propanediol, hyaluronic acid, panthenol and sodium PCA. These ingredients help to improve skin hydration, elasticity and smoothness, making them essential in products meant to hydrate and plump the skin.

The base is more than a filler — it’s what allows the active ingredients to be delivered properly, while also giving your product its feel, weight, and stability. Choosing the right base ingredients is more than a technical decision as it shapes how your product is perceived and how well it works. A hydrating serum with a sticky feel or a moisturizer that’s too greasy can turn users away, no matter how impressive your actives are.

2. Active Ingredients: The Stars of the Show

Actives are the ingredients that perform the primary function your product claims to address — whether it’s brightening, hydrating, soothing, exfoliating, or reducing wrinkles.

Examples of actives:

• Niacinamide: One of the most versatile ingredients in modern skincare, niacinamide helps visibly brighten dull skin, fade hyperpigmentation, and regulate excess sebum production — making it ideal for both oily and sensitive skin types. It also supports the skin barrier and improves the appearance of enlarged pores and fine lines over time. Best of all? It plays well with other actives and is known for being well-tolerated by most skin types.

• Hyaluronic Acid: A naturally occurring substance in our skin, hyaluronic acid is a powerful humectant that draws water into the skin. It can hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water, making it an essential ingredient for hydration-focused products. Depending on the molecular weight used, it can hydrate at the surface level (for plumping and glow) or penetrate deeper (for long-lasting moisture retention and skin elasticity).

• Salicylic Acid: A go-to for acne-prone and congested skin, salicylic acid is an oil-soluble beta hydroxy acid that can penetrate pores and exfoliate from the inside out. It helps dissolve sebum and dead skin cells, reduces inflammation, and minimizes breakouts — especially blackheads and whiteheads. It also smooths uneven texture and is often included in cleansers, spot treatments, and exfoliating serums.

• Centella Asiatica Extract: Also known as cica or tiger grass, this botanical extract is highly popular in Korean skincare for its natural soothing and healing properties. It’s commonly used to calm irritated or sensitive skin, reduce redness, and support wound healing. Rich in madecassoside and asiaticoside, Centella also promotes collagen production, making it ideal for barrier repair and post-acne care.

• Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid): A potent antioxidant, Vitamin C helps brighten the complexion, even out skin tone, and fight oxidative stress caused by UV rays and pollution. It also stimulates collagen synthesis, making it a popular ingredient in anti-aging and brightening formulations. Since pure ascorbic acid can be unstable, many brands opt for stabilized forms or derivatives (like sodium ascorbyl phosphate) for better shelf life and gentler delivery.

However — and this is important — actives are only effective when used in the right concentration, delivered in the right base, and supported by stabilizers or pH adjusters when needed. More isn’t always better, and not all actives work well together. For more information, check out our previous blog post on ingredient concentrations.

That’s why just copying an ingredient list won’t guarantee the same results — because the formula architecture matters. Besides, the the actual formulation (with their respective concentrations) are also not typically made public, so there is no way we can copy a product just by looking at the ingredient list.

3. Functional Ingredients: The Stabilizers and Helpers

While actives often get all the attention, a skincare product wouldn’t function properly — or even remain safe to use — without its functional ingredients. These are the behind-the-scenes workhorses that ensure your formula is microbiologically safe, properly mixed and uniform, safe for the skin's natural barrier and shelf-stable over time.

Key examples:

• Preservatives: Preservatives are essential in any water-containing skincare product. Without them, formulas would quickly become breeding grounds for bacteria, mold, or yeast — especially once the product is opened and exposed to air or fingers. They are meant to extend the product's shelf life, prevent microbial growth (even in clean environments), and ensure safety during long-term use. Many modern preservatives are broad-spectrum yet gentle, like phenoxyethanol (commonly used in Korean skincare), or combined systems such as ethylhexylglycerin + caprylyl glycol that enhance performance while maintaining skin-friendliness.

• Emulsifiers (e.g. cetearyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate): Emulsifiers are what allow oil and water — two ingredients that don’t naturally mix — to stay blended in a smooth, consistent formula. Without emulsifiers, your cream or lotion would separate over time, leading to uneven texture, ingredient distribution issues, and poor user experience. They play a significant role in creating stable emulsions like creams, lotions or milky serums, improving the feel and consistency of the final product and ensuring even delivery of actives.

• Chelators (e.g. disodium EDTA): Chelators help bind and deactivate trace metal ions (like iron or calcium) that may be present in water or raw materials. These metals can otherwise destabilize a formula or interfere with preservatives. They are used in skincare formulations to improve overall formula stability, boost preservative effectiveness (especially in natural formulations), and protect product color and texture over time.

• pH adjusters (e.g. citric acid, sodium hydroxide): Every skincare product needs to be pH-balanced for both skin compatibility and ingredient performance. pH adjusters are used during formulation to fine-tune the product's acidity or alkalinity, ensuring it stays within an ideal range. They keep the product non-irritating and barrier-friendly, and maximize the efficacy of pH-dependent actives (like AHAs or niacinamide). Even a small shift in pH can alter how a product feels, performs, or interacts with the skin — which is why professional formulation and lab testing are so critical.

These ingredients are often overlooked when people try to DIY or replicate a commercial product — but they’re vital for both safety and consistency.

4. Sensory & Texture Agents: The Skin Feel Factor

When you think about what makes a skincare product memorable, it’s not just the ingredients that deliver results — it’s also the texture, glide, scent, and finish. These sensory elements are largely shaped by a group of behind-the-scenes ingredients called texture or sensory agents. These ingredients don’t change the function of your product — but they do affect how it feels, spreads, absorbs, or smells. And that matters a lot for user experience and perceived value. While these ingredients may not appear as the "hero" ingredients, they do play a vital role in skincare formulations.

Common texture agents:

• Silicones (e.g. dimethicone): Silicones are synthetic polymers that are prized for their smooth, silky, and non-greasy finish. They create an instant slip on the skin, helping the product glide effortlessly while minimizing friction, and they're especially useful in serums, moisturizers, and primers. Dimethicone is one of the most commonly used silicones in skincare. It forms a breathable, non-comedogenic barrier on the skin that locks in hydration, softens texture, reduces transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and helps blur the appearance of pores and fine lines. Other types of silicones, like volatile silicones (e.g. cyclopentasiloxane), evaporate after application, leaving behind a soft, dry-touch finish, which is ideal for oily skin types or mattifying formulas.

• Carbomers & Gums: These are thickening agents that give your product the structure it needs — from watery toners to rich gels. Carbomer is a synthetic polymer used to create clear, smooth gels. It’s commonly used in serums, essences, and hydrating gel creams. Natural gums like xanthan gum or sclerotium gum are plant-derived thickeners often used in natural or EWG-compliant products. They’re particularly helpful in stabilizing emulsions and suspending actives. These ingredients control viscosity, allowing formulators to tweak how thick or fluid the product is, which plays a huge role in how it dispenses from a bottle, spreads on the face, and absorbs into the skin.

• Esters: Esters are lightweight, oil-like compounds that help enhance texture and skin feel without the heaviness of natural oils. They are often used as emollients to add slip, softness, and a silky, non-oily finish, which is especially important in moisturizers and lotions where “greasy” is a dealbreaker. They are effective in improving spreadability, improving absorption, and providing moisture without clogging pores. Because esters can mimic the feel of natural oils — but with better texture control and longer shelf life — they’re especially popular in modern, fast-absorbing skincare formats.

• Fragrance or essential oils (optional): Scent is one of the most emotionally driven aspects of a skincare product. It can reinforce brand identity, create a calming or energizing experience, and influence how users perceive a product's "cleanliness" or "luxury". Many brands choose to include fragrance or essential oils to create signature scents, however, they can be potential irritants, especially for sensitive or acne-prone skin. That's why fragrance-free or naturally unscented products are becoming increasingly popularly, particularly in minimalist, clinical or sensitive skincare lines.

This is where skincare starts to feel luxurious (or not), and it’s a key area that can differentiate your product — especially when you're targeting a particular audience or market.

Why This All Matters: Formulas Are More Than Just Ingredients

When you’re creating a skincare product from scratch (through custom formulation), it’s not enough to copy a popular serum’s ingredient list and hope for the best.

That list won’t show you:

• The actual percentages of each ingredient

• The order of incorporation during manufacturing

• The interactions between ingredients

• The preservation system

• Or the way it feels on skin

A real formula is more like a recipe, and every ingredient has a job. That’s why working with an experienced lab (like the ones we partner with at MAYK) is so important. They help take your vision and turn it into something effective, stable, and truly your own.

Final Thoughts

Two products can contain the same ingredients on paper, but if one feels sticky and the other absorbs beautifully, guess which one the customer will reach for again?

Texture, scent, and finish aren’t just preferences — they’re part of your brand identity. They shape how your product is used, remembered, and talked about.

That’s why at MAYK, when you begin a custom formulation project with us, we always ask for a benchmark product — a real-world example of something you like (or don’t like) in terms of texture, scent, absorption, or appearance. We covered the topic of using benchmark products in custom formulation projects here.

Even if the goal isn’t to replicate it, a benchmark gives our lab a clear direction. It helps us:

• Understand the sensory experience you want to achieve

• Choose the right emollients, thickeners, and finish agents

• Avoid textures or finishes that don’t align with your brand vision

Because great skincare isn’t just about what goes into the formula — it’s about how that formula feels when it meets the skin.

Ready to turn your skincare idea into a real product?
👉 Start your custom formulation journey with MAYK →