The sale starts in six hours and you have forty products on your mental list. You can't remember which ones had ingredients that broke you out last time, which ones you were waiting to try in sample form first, and which three you actually need versus which fourteen you want. The haul ends up being either nothing or everything, because you have no prioritization system.
An AB wishlist database solves the decision paralysis that every serious skincare collector knows.
The Ingredient Safety Layer Is Not Optional
Notable ingredients and Triggers are the two fields that separate informed purchasing from hopeful guessing. Notable ingredients captures the actives and skin-identical compounds you're specifically seeking — niacinamide, centella asiatica, adenosine, snail secretion filtrate, ceramides. Triggers is the acne and sensitivity flagging: fragrance, essential oils, alcohol denat, high-concentration acids, comedogenic ingredients like isopropyl myristate.
For someone with reactive or acne-prone skin navigating the dense formulations in the AB market, the triggers field is the filter that prevents the breakout you've already had twice. A moisturizer with excellent Cosdna ratings that still contains your specific trigger is not on the buy list regardless of how many Reddit threads recommend it.
Cosdna stores the direct link to the product's CosDNA ingredient analysis page — the third-party safety scoring tool that rates each ingredient for acne-triggering and irritation potential on a 0-5 scale. Having the link in the record means you're not searching for the analysis during the checkout window when you have three minutes to decide.
Urgency and the Sample Strategy
Urgency is the prioritization field that makes the wishlist a buying queue rather than a fantasy list. Three to four levels — need now, want soon, can wait, just curious — transform the list from a growing pile into a structured decision tree.
Products with high urgency, low triggers, and a strong Cosdna profile are the primary targets. Products with medium urgency and unconfirmed triggers drop to the sample tier.
Sample size is a boolean flag that marks products you want to test in decant or sample size before committing to full purchase. In AB, full-size serums frequently run $25-60+ and some formulations interact unpredictably with individual skin chemistry. The sample flag means you're not skipping a product — you're routing it correctly through the evaluation pipeline before the full investment.
Price and Volume give you the cost-per-ml comparison that makes size choices rational. A 30ml serum at $28 and a 50ml serum at $38 from the same brand are very different value propositions. Without both fields, the comparison requires mental arithmetic at a moment when you're making multiple simultaneous decisions.
Brand, Product Name, and Category organize the list for browsing. The category field — toner, essence, serum, moisturizer, sunscreen, treatment — lets you filter for what your routine currently needs rather than scrolling the full wishlist looking for the one SPF you know you added.