what is aqua?

[darth vader]

following on from flirty41's question about chemical naming standards i have noticed on certain toiletries the ingredient 'aqua' - anyone know what exactly it is? (Or made up of?)

[ipek]

Using my rudimentary knowledge of several languages, I'd say 'Water'......but I'm not a chemist.

[Cetti]

Please say this is a joke darth - even without ipek's multi - linguistic abilities - it's still only water - unless someone else knows different !!

[darth vader]

It's a serious question. Sorry no i didn't explain fully - i realise that aqua is Latin for water, but what i mean is, if the ingredient is water then surely they would be required to state "water" not "aqua" on the tin, therefore aqua must be some derivative of water, hence my question

[Cetti]

Forgive my flippancy darth, I wrongly imagined it was the Jedi Knight speaking! I've just had a look at a whole range of products from expensive potions to cheaper lotions and it appears that the French owned companies like Vaseline (Elida - Faberge) and Clarins, Lancome etc list their products with aqua first being the largest ingredient, but with no translation - and the American/British products ie Palmer's and Nivea list the ingreds thus: Aqua (water) or Deionised Water (Aqua). Is this what you meant?

[darth vader]

exactly Cetti. So i guess the answer is that it IS simply water - surely they should be forced to say this? (rather than some arty farty name for it?)

[WendyW]

Its all to do with standardising ingredient lists within the EU ... Now they have to say Aqua (although countries are able to add the word water if they wish) .... Have you seen the proposals from the EU that Sardines should have the LATIN name on the tin ... what are we coming too

[xyzzyplugh]

Aqua is Dihydrogen Monoxide.

[Pinotage]

Its very useful to toiletry companies to be able to obscure the major part of their expensive products is simple water :)

[Andromeda]

Heh Plugh - BAN DHMO!!! I trust you have seen the missive on this (If not I'll post it on the Group). Blooming EU directives. I think it is more to obscure what goes in these things than standardise it. I mean why take the standard from from a completely dead language?! Surely Esperanto (akvo) would have been a more logical choice?

Andy