Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating General INCI Names

  • INCI Names

    Posted by Anonymous on June 12, 2018 at 11:47 pm

    Hi, 

    I’m interested in knowing if the chemical names in the INCI directory are connected to specific chemical structures/CAS number, and if there is some resource for this available online. 

    I’m curious about this because I found that cosmetic peptides are completely arbitrarily named, with a prefix denoting the length and an arbitrary number at the end. Is cosmetic peptide production mainly limited to a few suppliers who keep it consistent? If not, what’s stopping company A from putting any old peptide into their formulation and calling it “tripeptide-1”? 

    Thank you! 

    Anonymous replied 5 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • das

    Member
    June 13, 2018 at 12:13 am

    Yes, the INCI rely on IUPAC, and are made by the PCPC. 

    You will find more info here:

    https://www.cir-safety.org/

    https://iupac.org/

  • oldperry

    Member
    June 13, 2018 at 3:55 am

    All names for cosmetic ingredients are assigned in the INCI dictionary. You can’t arbitrarily make up a name.  However, the INCI doesn’t always follow the IUPAC system. There are some different stem names for hydrocarbons & for other ingredients it’s not possible to determine molecular structure from the name. Polyquaternium 7 says virtually nothing about its structure.

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 13, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    Thank you DAS and Perry for the quick response. 

    Yes, I understand the difference between the IUPAC and INCI naming systems. But does every chemical in the INCI directory have a corresponding IUPAC name, and if so, is the full INCI directory the only resource that has it? 

    I bring this up because it is well understood that glycerin = glycerol, but I can’t find much information on what “oligopeptide-1” is. The information I find tells me “it is an effective skin conditioning ingredient” but no information on its chemical structure. 

  • david

    Member
    June 13, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    The oligopeptide-1 is a 55 amino acid long peptide with Mw 6500. It would get a quite long IUPAC name - that’s probably why you can’t find it…

  • david

    Member
    June 13, 2018 at 5:51 pm

    here is oligopeptide-10  a shorter peptide- enjoy 🙂

    (2S)-6-amino-N-[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-6-amino-1-[[(2S)-1-[[(2S)-1-amino-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxohexan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxohexan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxohexan-2-yl]amino]-4-methyl-1-oxopentan-2-yl]amino]-1-oxopropan-2-yl]-2-[[(2S)-2-[[(2S)-2-amino-3-phenylpropanoyl]amino]propanoyl]amino]hexanamide

  • oldperry

    Member
    June 13, 2018 at 5:55 pm

    does every chemical in the INCI directory have a corresponding IUPAC name

    No.  That’s because there are a lot of INCI names that refer to chemical blends rather than single ingredients IUPAC focuses on single ingredients.

    Although most INCI names probably have a corresponding CAS number.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_Registry_Number

  • Anonymous

    Guest
    June 13, 2018 at 6:12 pm

    Hi David and Perry, 

    Thank you so much for your answers! I really truly appreciate it. 

    David, can I ask you where you obtained that information from? Is it from your own work? 

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