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
Rosehip fruit oil
A rose does not finish its story when the petals fall. The bright hip that follows has its own structure, wildlife role and cosmetic vocabulary—and Fruit Oil is worth reading...
Ingredient Atlas
Spirulina powder · the microscopic source of a vivid green
Spirulina can make a dramatic green powder, yet its source is microscopic. Often called blue-green algae, it belongs to cyanobacteria, organisms that use light to grow. Spirulina Platensis Powder brings...
Ingredient Atlas
Rapeseed oil
Those brilliant yellow fields hide their future oil in small dark seeds. Rapeseed brings a familiar northern-European landscape into the story of an everyday balm or bar.
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium Chloride · a familiar crystal with a quiet formula job
Table salt is easy to recognise in a kitchen and easy to overlook on a cosmetic label. Sodium Chloride can be there for the way it changes a material’s consistency,...
Ingredient Atlas
Pumpkin seed oil
The pumpkin’s bright shell is the seasonal celebrity, but its seeds carry another kind of richness. Their oil can be golden or dramatically dark, depending on the material and how...
Ingredient Atlas
Sea salt · the sea becomes a crystal
Sea salt looks still, but its source is a story of moving water. Dissolved ions arrive in the ocean, water evaporates, and salts remain. Maris Sal brings that marine preparation...
Ingredient Atlas
Plum kernel oil
The part you leave on the plate can begin another useful story. Inside a plum’s hard stone sits a kernel, and that kernel can supply an oil for cosmetic formulas.
Ingredient Atlas
Rice seed powder · the grain in another form
Rice is one of the most familiar grains in a kitchen, yet its cosmetic story changes with every step after harvest. Remove the hull, choose how much to mill, then...
Ingredient Atlas
Palmitic acid
Why does one fatty ingredient flow while another has a waxy body? Palmitic acid brings the story down to sixteen carbons, a straight chain and the art of giving a...
Ingredient Atlas
Rice germ powder · the tiny beginning inside a grain
A rice grain contains the beginning of another plant. The germ is that small embryo, tucked beside the much larger starchy interior. Oryza Sativa Germ Powder follows this less familiar...
Ingredient Atlas
Palm oil
One palm fruit supplies two different oils, and each can lead to several more materials. Understanding that first split makes both the cosmetic chemistry and the sourcing questions easier to...
Ingredient Atlas
Neem leaf powder · one tree, several different ingredients
Neem is often described as though the whole tree were one ingredient. Its leaves, seeds, bark and oil tell different stories. Azadirachta Indica Leaf Powder follows the leaf route: the...
