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
Erythritol
The ingredient you may know from a sweetener packet has another life in cosmetics. Erythritol links fermentation, a dry powder and the surprisingly practical question of how easily a comb...
Ingredient Atlas
Brassica alcohol
From an oilseed family to the quiet structure of a balm: a different way to think about plant-derived ingredients.
Ingredient Atlas
AMP-isostearoyl crop amino acids
Three crops and a long chemical name can sound like an unnecessarily complicated way to describe plant care. Here the length is useful: it records amino acids from wheat, corn...
Ingredient Atlas
Cocoyl hydrolysed oat protein
Oats and coconut sound like a breakfast pairing, but this long name describes something more deliberate: prepared oat-protein fragments joined with a fatty component. The connection changes the material, giving...
Ingredient Atlas
Arginine
An amino acid can begin in a fermentation tank and end in a shampoo bar. Arginine makes that journey especially interesting because it connects a familiar protein building block with...
Ingredient Atlas
Sesame oil
A sesame seed is familiar on bread; the plant that makes it is much less familiar. White flowers become capsules, the capsules open, and the tiny seeds contain enough oil...
Ingredient Atlas
Sea buckthorn fruit oil
Silver leaves, fierce little thorns and orange berries: sea buckthorn makes an entrance long before its oil reaches a cosmetic. The most useful surprise is hidden inside the fruit—its pulp...
Ingredient Atlas
Alanine
Alanine is one of the small names behind a much bigger idea: moisturising does not have to begin with an oil. This amino acid connects the skin’s own water-loving materials...
Ingredient Atlas
Rosehip seed oil
The rosehip’s bright outer wall gets most of the attention. This story follows the smaller seed-bearing pieces within it, and the fatty oil that can become one part of a...
Ingredient Atlas
Wheat starch
Wheat can become flour, oil, protein or starch, and each route selects something different from the grain. Wheat starch is the pale, understated branch of that family: a separated carbohydrate...
Ingredient Atlas
Cocoa powder · the other side of the butter press
Cocoa butter and cocoa powder can begin in the same bean, then take very different lives. Pressing separates a pale fat from a darker cake that can be broken down...
Ingredient Atlas
Rosehip oil: Rosa Eglanteria on the label
Some roses offer an apple-like scent from their leaves as well as flowers. Sweet briar is a lovely route into a rosehip-oil name that can look different from the better-known...
