Here’s What Those Vague Words In Skin Care REALLY Mean

Choosing a skin care product is far from a straightforward process. In fact, at times it feels downright mysterious — and no wonder. With vague words like "invigorating" and "revitalizing" explaining what a product is supposed to do, how is anyone ever supposed to know the difference — or if there's even a difference at all?

Never ones to be left in the dark about our own beauty choices, we made a list of words that might have you scratching your well-nourished scalps, and then set about demystifying them. The bottom line, as we quickly learned from Marla Malcolm Beck, the co-founder and CEO of Bluemercury, is that overall, there are no true definitions for these terms. "They tend to be industry slang and fall within a skin-care language that beauty experts and beauty junkies speak," Beck explains.

But, that being said, this industry slang does have its own meaning. Read on for your glossary of skin care, so that you never have to risk enhancing when you should be tightening (or whatever) ever again.