INCI Names vs. Trade Names: Why Makers Keep Buying the Same Ingredient Twice

How supplier product names hide ingredient overlap, confuse inventory, and cost formulators money

Cosmetic makers often buy the same raw material twice because suppliers sell identical INCI ingredients under different trade names. Here’s how to spot duplicates, compare suppliers correctly, and organize your inventory smarter.

You do not always need more ingredients. Sometimes you just need to realize you already own them.

One of the biggest mistakes beginning formulators make is buying too much too soon. And this industry does not help, because the same raw material may be sold by multiple suppliers under completely different names. If you are shopping by trade name instead of INCI, you can end up buying the same ingredient 2 or 3 times and never realize it until your shelves, your budget, and your spreadsheet are already a mess.

One of the biggest raw material shopping mistakes formulators make has nothing to do with bad formulas. It happens in the cart. You see an ingredient name that sounds new, sounds better, or just sounds different enough to justify buying it. Then later, when you check the INCI, you realize you already had it sitting on your shelf under another supplier’s name. That problem is real, and it is made worse by the way maker-focused suppliers present overlapping materials under different front-facing names.

That is why formulators need to learn ingredients by INCI first and selling name second. The trade name helps sell the ingredient. The INCI tells you what the ingredient actually is. The Personal Care Products Council describes INCI names as systematic names recognized internationally to identify cosmetic ingredients, and its online wINCI database is positioned as a definitive resource for those names.

Trade names sell ingredients. INCI names identify them.

That is the heart of the problem. A supplier may use a house name, a branded name, a descriptive catalog title, or the original manufacturer trade name. None of those naming styles changes what the raw material actually is. If you are comparing ingredients across suppliers, the only reliable starting point is the INCI.

A lot of makers end up with bloated inventories not because they truly need more ingredients, but because they have unknowingly bought the same thing under multiple names. That is not just a money problem. It also creates confusion in testing, substitution, and formula evaluation, because people think they are working with different materials when they are really not.

The problem gets worse when the product title is loud and the INCI is an afterthought. This is especially common at maker-focused suppliers where front-facing product names are often optimized for shopping, not for cross-supplier comparison.

A perfect example: one emulsifier, multiple names:

Inci: Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Cetearyl Glucoside.

MakingCosmetics sells it as CreamMaker GLUCO, and its product page and COA identify the INCI as Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Cetearyl Glucoside.

That same emulsifier system also shows up in the market under names like Montanov 68 MB and VegeMulse NG, which is exactly why makers get tripped up. CreamMaker GLUCO sounds like one ingredient.

Montanov 68 MB sounds like another. VegeMulse NG sounds like a third.

But once you stop looking at the front-facing label and start looking at the INCI, the overlap becomes obvious.

That is how small labs quietly waste money. A maker thinks they bought 3 different emulsifiers. In reality, they may have bought the same one 3 times under 3 different names.

Formulator Sample Shop absolutely belongs in this discussion, but with one nuance: they do not always rename things as aggressively as some of the other suppliers. Sometimes FSS uses a house-style name, sometimes a more descriptive catalog name, and sometimes they keep a fairly direct technical description. That does not eliminate the confusion. It just changes what the confusion looks like.

A strong example is Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Ceteareth-20.

MakingCosmetics sells it as CreamMaker CA-20.

Formulator Sample Shop sells it as FSS Emulsifying Wax C20 and explicitly describes it as a blend of cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth-20.

Wholesale Supplies Plus sells that same emulsifier system as Emulsifying Wax Soft & Silky, and its product page says the formula combines Cetearyl Alcohol and Ceteareth-20.

Three different front-facing names for the same underlying INCI. If you are shopping quickly by title instead of identity, it is very easy to think you are looking at 3 different emulsifiers when you are not.

That is exactly why Formulator Sample Shop still belongs in this conversation. Even when a supplier is not using a flashy trade name, a descriptive or house-style name can still create the same buyer-side problem: duplicate purchases, cluttered inventory, and the false impression that your ingredient library is broader than it really is.

Not every overlap is renamed beyond recognition. Sometimes suppliers keep a more consistent name, which at least reduces some of the mess. That is still not a substitute for checking the INCI, but it creates less unnecessary confusion for makers comparing vendors. The more naming consistency there is across suppliers, the easier it is for formulators to see what they actually own. That is one reason INCI-first inventory systems work so much better than supplier-name-first systems.

The bigger problem: too many makers are shopping like consumers, not formulators

Consumers shop by front label. Formulators cannot afford to. A formulator has to look past the sales name and ask: What is the INCI? Is this a single raw material or a blend? Do I already own this under another supplier name? Am I comparing ingredients, or just comparing catalogs? Until that becomes second nature, duplicate buying will keep happening. That is not because makers are careless. It is because supplier naming conventions are not built to make cross-shopping easy.

And there is one more nuance that matters: matching INCI is the first step, not the only step. PCPC’s nomenclature guidance notes that INCI naming is centered on ingredient composition, and not on reviewing safety or suitability of intended use.

In plain English, same INCI gets you much closer to the truth, but it does not automatically tell you everything about grade, performance, or supplier-specific support.

The right habit is not “ignore trade names.” The right habit is “check the INCI first, then verify the details.”

If your inventory is organized by supplier product names, you are making your life harder. The better system is to organize by INCI first, then list the supplier’s product title underneath it. That way, CreamMaker CA-20, FSS Emulsifying Wax C20, and Emulsifying Wax Soft & Silky all live under one ingredient identity: Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Ceteareth-20.

The same logic applies to CreamMaker GLUCO and any other supplier listing that resolves to Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Cetearyl Glucoside. Once everything is filed under the INCI, the duplicates stop hiding in plain sight.

What This Really Means

Trade names are for selling. INCI names are for identifying.

If you are not checking the INCI before you buy, you are gambling with your money, your inventory, and sometimes your formulation decisions too.

Sources

This post is based on standardized cosmetic ingredient naming guidance from the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), which oversees INCI resources and the wINCI database, along with current supplier product listings used as real-world examples of how the same ingredient can appear under different selling names. PCPC explains that INCI names are standardized identifiers used to identify cosmetic ingredients, and that INCI naming is centered on ingredient composition rather than evaluating safety or suitability for intended use.

Supplier examples referenced in this post include MakingCosmetics CreamMaker® GLUCO, which lists the INCI as Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Cetearyl Glucoside; Formulator Sample Shop FSS Emulsifying Wax C20, described as a blend of cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth-20; and Wholesale Supplies Plus Emulsifying Wax Soft & Silky, which identifies Cetearyl Alcohol and Ceteareth-20 as its ingredient components.

~Lissa~