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.
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Gift & Gifting Encyclopedia
300 articles about thoughtful gifts: people, occasions, traditions, beautiful presentation and words that feel like you.
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Body Cleansing Explained
Does your skin feel tight after the towel? Are you choosing a bar, or wondering where to put it when it’s wet? Start with the part of the shower you’d like to make easier.
Read the guideArticles: 1444
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium isethionate
One missing word changes the story. Sodium Isethionate is not an abbreviated way to write Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate: it is a separate ingredient, with a place in the manufacture of...
Ingredient Atlas
CI 60730 · the violet in a colour-care bar
If your hair is silver, highlighted or blonde, violet shampoo may already be part of your bathroom vocabulary. CI 60730 is one colour identity that can appear in a solid...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium hydroxide in soapmaking
A good soap-making story contains a transformation. The oils that go into the pot are not simply the oils you wash with afterwards, and the alkali has a changing part...
Ingredient Atlas
Titanium dioxide
White is an active choice in a colour palette. Titanium dioxide can make a cosmetic more opaque, turn a translucent-looking blend into a creamy-looking one, or form part of a...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium citrate
This relative of citric acid has two quiet talents: helping keep a formula’s acidity steady and managing the minerals that arrive with water. It also has an unexpectedly useful dry...
Ingredient Atlas
Tin oxide
A tiny-sounding name can belong to an elaborate visual construction. Tin oxide often appears beside mica-like particles and titanium dioxide in pearlescent pigments. Its story is less about a metallic...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium benzoate
You may recognise sodium benzoate from a food label, then find it again on a conditioner bar. The shared name has a sensible explanation: both products need protection from spoilage....
Ingredient Atlas
Talc
Talc's familiar powder image hides a useful detail: its particles are tiny mineral leaflets. Their shape helps explain the slip and soft feel for which it is used. Its story...
Ingredient Atlas
Propyl gallate
A solid perfume is a composition of materials that needs looking after as well as smelling. Propyl gallate belongs to the quiet part of that work: helping limit oxygen-related changes....
Ingredient Atlas
CI 17200 · the red behind a mixed shade
A red ingredient can be hiding in a bar that does not announce itself as red at all. CI 17200 is one of the colours a maker can use to...
Ingredient Atlas
Potassium sorbate
The sorbate name leads back to a family of compounds connected with rowan berries, but its everyday cosmetic value is much more practical. Potassium sorbate helps protect a formula, and...
Ingredient Atlas
CI 15850 · a red with several names
Some ingredient names sound wonderfully familiar until a closer look reveals a different material. CI 15850 can appear under names such as Litholrubin or Carmine 6B, yet it is a...
