Articles and guides
Practical advice, ingredients and stories about solid cosmetics.
In-depth guides
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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
Silica
A fine powder can make a rich mixture feel less slippery, help particles stay suspended or give a product more body. Silica's story is a reminder that the most useful...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium laurylglucosides hydroxypropylsulfonate
A sugar-derived cleanser does not always remain an uncharged glucoside. This ingredient takes the idea a step further, giving a glucoside-related structure an anionic character. The reward for untangling its...
Ingredient Atlas
Water in a solid formula
You pick up a firm bar, turn it over, and find Aqua on the label. Has somebody made a mistake? Water has several possible lives inside a solid cosmetic: an...
Ingredient Atlas
Triethyl citrate
A perfume tin and a deodorant stick may share an ingredient even when they are solving very different problems. Triethyl citrate is one of those versatile names. Its story moves...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium lauryl sulfate
SLS has become so familiar as an abbreviation that it can obscure the ingredient itself. Behind those three letters is a water-soluble washing material with a very direct job: helping...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium cocoyl glycinate
The feel of foam can be designed, and the ingredients surrounding a cleanser can help shape it. Sodium cocoyl glycinate offers a particularly interesting example: in a documented formulation study,...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium phytate
A powder with a long name can be a remarkably considerate member of a formula. Sodium phytate helps keep troublesome metal ions occupied. Its story leads from mineral reserves in...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium cocoyl glutamate
An amino-acid connection in a shampoo does not always lead to a protein treatment. Sometimes it leads to the ingredient doing the washing. Sodium cocoyl glutamate takes glutamic-acid material and...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium gluconate
Sugar syrup, fermentation and a quiet talent for managing minerals: sodium gluconate has a much richer story than its name suggests. Inside a solid cleanser, it can help with the...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium coco-sulfate
A small white granule can carry the washing part of a shampoo bar. Sodium coco-sulfate connects coconut-related fatty material with sulfate chemistry, creating a cleanser that is at home in...
Ingredient Atlas
Phytic acid
A seed needs a way to keep important minerals ready for its first days of growth. Phytic acid belongs to that hidden store cupboard. In a cosmetic formula, its ability...
Ingredient Atlas
Decyl glucoside
A glucose connection can lead somewhere very different from sweetness. In decyl glucoside, it becomes part of a washing ingredient, joined to a fatty-alcohol component. Follow that connection and an...
