The duty of a styptic product is to shrink the blood vessels at the injury site so they stop bleeding. There are many chemicals that can do the job which occur in nature and are not harmful. They just sound intimidating when you spell out their chemical compounds. Potassium aluminum sulfate is one of those chemicals, which can come from alum, a common household compound.

Some styptic products also contain an antibiotic and/or a pain killer which works through the skin (like sprays used on sunburn).

In the list of chemicals on the package, some of the items may be fillers or used to keep the styptic powder from clumping or the liquid from separating.

Better living through chemistry, huh?