The purpose of this research is to prevent the base data of whitening ingredients by surveying on ingredient status and level of satisfaction of cosmetics used for improving the whitening effect in various skin care shops. The research was undertaken by surveying on ingredients in essence, cream and pack main elements on top 10 brands with the focus on major elements when selecting product and level of preference of cosmetics brand used for the purpose of whitening in skill care shops. The intent was to find out the relativity with the level of satisfaction following the use of whitening cosmetics following the ingredients and knowledge of whitening cosmetics. The research result showed, first, that the most important elements in selecting the whitening cosmetics were sense of use in cosmetic product for 27 persons (44.3%), followed by effective ingredient for 26 persons (42.6%), and the time of having the effect in 4~6 months for 27 persons (44.3%). Second, as a result of surveying the ingredients in top 10 preferred cosmetics brands to improve the whitening, it showed the use of ingredients of essence for 28.8±12.75, cream for 34.3±9.09, and pack for 31.7±10.73. Third, the effective ingredients and extracted materials were shown diversely for each brand with the most widely used preservatives in methylparaben, the surfactants in glyceryl stearate, the humectnats in glycerine and the oil materials in dimethicon and cetearyl alcohol. Fourth, for other ingredients, most frequent use for the antioxidant was tocopheryl acetate, the thickening agents for carbomer, and the sequestering agents for disodium EDTA. And, fifth, the level of satisfaction for using the whitening cosmetics was shown to have noticeable influence on level of understanding on skin care cosmetics (β=.349, t=2.212, p<.05) and knowledge on ingredients of skin care cosmetics (β=.378, t=2.396, p<.05). As shown above, ingredients used for whitening cosmetics are composed very diversely, and high level of understanding on cosmetics and knowledge on cosmetics ingredient would only be of help in selecting skin care products.