Articles and guides
Practical advice, ingredients and stories about solid cosmetics.
In-depth guides
Choose a topic and find practical answers.
Ingredient Atlas
Ingredient origins, textures and practical answers about cosmetic labels.
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Solid Cosmetics School
Practical lessons for using, storing and travelling with solid cosmetics.
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Which One? Comparison Studio
Clear comparisons for the cosmetics you use, the routines you enjoy and the gifts you give.
Read the guideArticles: 776
Ingredient Atlas
Cabbage-rose flower extract
Cabbage rose is a wonderfully unglamorous name for a flower with such a generous appearance. Its many petals make a full, folded bloom, while its cosmetic name takes a more...
Ingredient Atlas
American linden flower extract
An American linden in flower can be heard as well as seen: bees crowd its fragrant blossoms. The tree also gives shade, soft carving wood and useful bark fibre. Its...
Ingredient Atlas
Lentil seed extract
The lentil in a kitchen jar is a seed from a small, pod-bearing plant. In cosmetics, a carefully selected extract can take a different route from the same starting material....
Ingredient Atlas
Baikal skullcap root extract
Above ground, Baikal skullcap has blue, two-lipped flowers arranged along its stems. Below ground, its roots make a different collection of plant compounds. That contrast is the heart of this...
Ingredient Atlas
Lemon-balm leaf extract
Lemon balm smells of citrus without producing a single lemon. Its crinkled leaves belong to the mint family, and their route into a shampoo can be just as surprising as...
Ingredient Atlas
Stearyl alcohol
A pale flake with a long molecular tail can help a cosmetic hold its body. Stearyl alcohol brings an unexpectedly wax-like chapter to the alcohol family: a material chosen for...
Ingredient Atlas
Hydrogenated Castor Oil · the oil that becomes a hard wax
Castor oil is famously thick and flowing. Give it another processing chapter and it can become a hard, brittle wax. Hydrogenated Castor Oil is a particularly clear example of how...
Ingredient Atlas
African-date fruit ferment extract
Fermentation can turn a familiar starting material into something with a different working character. In this hair-care ingredient, the most interesting story is that transformation: fruit, a named group of...
Ingredient Atlas
Knotted wrack extract
At low tide, a rock can be covered by what looks like a tangle of olive ribbons. Underwater, those ribbons rise into a floating canopy. Knotted wrack has a wonderfully...
Ingredient Atlas
Cetearyl alcohol
Cetearyl alcohol begins with a useful double act. It combines two fatty alcohols in one ingredient, giving formulators a way to build creamy body and a reliable structure. The result...
Ingredient Atlas
Kakadu plum fruit extract
Before Kakadu plum became a beauty ingredient, it already belonged to seasons, food traditions and the knowledge of Aboriginal communities in northern Australia. Its small green fruit has a much...
Ingredient Atlas
Behenyl alcohol
A solid needs more than a beautiful oil. It also needs materials that help the blend hold together, release neatly and keep a useful shape. Behenyl alcohol opens that architectural...
