Getting the INCI When the Supplier Only Gave a Trade Name

You bought "SilkTouch 500" from a supplier, it feels great in your lotion, and now you're staring at a filing form that wants INCI names. SilkTouch 500 is not an INCI name. It's not going anywhere near your notification. And this happens constantly, especially with smaller suppliers who sell blends and specialty actives under branded names because that's what sounds good on a product data sheet.

Trade names exist to sell you the product. Filings run on INCI names and, ideally, CAS numbers. You need to convert one into the other before you can file anything.

Start with what the supplier already sent you

Before you go back asking for more, check what's already in your inbox. Most suppliers send at least one of these when you place an order:

• A Certificate of Analysis (CoA)
• A Safety Data Sheet (SDS)
• A Technical Data Sheet (TDS)
• A product spec sheet

The SDS is your best bet. Section 3 of a properly formatted SDS lists composition, and that's where INCI names or CAS numbers for hazardous components usually show up. The catch: SDS composition sections often only list components above certain hazard thresholds, so a fully benign blend might show almost nothing in section 3 even though it has five ingredients.

The email that actually gets a response

If what you have isn't enough, ask directly and specifically. Vague requests get vague answers. Try something like:

"We're preparing a regulatory filing for a product using [Trade Name]. Could you send the full INCI declaration for this ingredient, including percentage ranges for each component if it's a blend? We'd also appreciate the CAS number(s) if available."

Notice this asks for three things at once: the INCI list, the percentage breakdown, and CAS numbers. Suppliers who deal with regulatory requests regularly usually have this on file already and can send it same day. If they hesitate or say they can't share it, that's useful information too, it may mean the blend is proprietary and they're worried about you reverse-engineering their formula.

When the answer is "we can't disclose the exact ratios"

This happens with proprietary blends. The supplier will often give you the full INCI list in descending order without exact percentages, protected by trade secret. That's usually enough for a filing that accepts concentration ranges, but you need to know your own maximum use level of that blend to calculate the range for each component.

Here's the math that trips people up: if your blend is used at 2% of your total formula, and the blend itself is 40% Glycerin, 30% Aqua, 20% Sodium Hyaluronate, and 10% a preservative system, then Sodium Hyaluronate isn't 20% of your product. It's 20% of the 2%, which is 0.4%. Multiply the component percentage by your use level of the blend to get the real concentration in the finished product. Skipping this step is one of the most common errors in DIY filings, because people either report the blend's internal percentages as if they were finished-product percentages, or they report only the blend name and let it get lost.

A quick reference for what to ask for

Document	What it usually contains	Ask if missing
SDS	Hazard-relevant composition, CAS numbers	"Can you send the current SDS?"
CoA	Batch-specific purity, sometimes INCI	"Does the CoA list INCI names?"
TDS	Function, recommended use level	"What's the recommended max use level?"
INCI declaration	Full component list, descending order	"Can you provide a full INCI breakdown for filing purposes?"

What to do with botanical extracts that have no CAS

Not every ingredient has a clean CAS number. Some botanical extracts genuinely don't, because they're complex natural mixtures rather than single defined substances. If a supplier tells you there's no CAS for their calendula extract, that's plausible and not a red flag by itself. What matters more there is getting the correct INCI name (species name plus plant part plus extract type) rather than chasing a number that may not exist.

Keep the paper trail

Once you've got the real breakdown, save the email thread along with the document. Six months from now when you're filing an amendment or a variant, you'll want to know exactly which supplier response gave you which numbers, especially if the supplier updates their formula later without telling you (it happens more than anyone likes).

This whole exercise, chasing a trade name back to its real components, is one of the more tedious parts of getting a formula ready to file. It's also exactly the kind of thing Cosmetic Comply was built to shortcut: you give it your ingredient list, including blends, and it maps everything to INCI and CAS, carrying the math through so a supplier blend used at 2% doesn't accidentally get reported at full strength. It won't chase down a supplier who refuses to answer your email, but it will save you the spreadsheet gymnastics once you have the numbers in hand.