Film Former

Candelilla wax is boiled off the stems of a leafless desert shrub that coats itself to keep from drying out, and it is the usual plant-derived stand-in for beeswax; its international trade is controlled under CITES.

Carnauba is the hard, high-melting wax a Brazilian fan palm secretes onto its fronds to survive the dry season, and in cosmetics it is the ingredient that stops a lipstick going soft in a warm room.

A synthetic silicone fluid sold in every viscosity from thinner than water to a cuttable gum, valued in cosmetics for spreading further than an oil of the same thickness and for leaving a dry rather than a greasy surface.

A viscous, non-volatile hydrocarbon polymer that gives lip gloss its thickness, its cling and much of its shine; it is the fraction that stays behind once the volatile solvent it was dissolved in has gone.

Shellac is a resin secreted by a scale insect on trees in India and South-East Asia; in cosmetics it is a film former, the thing that makes a mascara hold a curl and a nail lacquer set hard and glossy.

A brittle silicone resin built from trimethylsilyl caps around a silica-like core; dissolved in a volatile solvent and left behind when that solvent evaporates, it is the film that makes a lipstick transfer-resistant.