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
Olive oil unsaponifiables
Most of an oil can become soap, but a smaller collection of materials takes a different path. Olive oil unsaponifiables invite you to discover that less obvious part of a...
Ingredient Atlas
Magnesium Chloride · the salt with a liking for water
A magnesium massage bar combines two material worlds: a rich, melting fatty base and a mineral salt that dissolves readily in water. Magnesium Chloride is useful to understand because its...
Ingredient Atlas
Oat oil
There is more inside an oat than starch for breakfast. Its kernel also contains a lipid fraction, and that quieter part of the grain has a useful life in skin...
Ingredient Atlas
Indigo leaf powder · the blue that begins with a leaf
Indigo is famous for blue, but its plant story begins with leaves and a transformation. Colour precursors change through processing and contact with oxygen, giving the dye its familiar identity....
Ingredient Atlas
Moringa oil
Long pods, papery-winged seeds and an oil once used in delicate machinery: moringa has more than one surprising chapter. Its cosmetic story begins inside the seed.
Ingredient Atlas
Ground sweet almond seed · the kernel gets another role
One almond can lead to an oil, a shell powder or a ground kernel, and those are three different stories. Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Seed follows the sweet almond kernel into...
Ingredient Atlas
Milk thistle seed oil
A prickly purple flower is an unlikely-looking beginning for a smooth oil. Look closer at milk thistle and the story becomes one of beautifully marked leaves, tiny dry fruits and...
Ingredient Atlas
Giant kelp powder · a forest reduced to a handful
Giant kelp makes underwater forests with floating blades, flexible stipes and a holdfast that grips rock. It can look tree-like without being a land plant at all. Macrocystis Pyrifera Powder...
Ingredient Atlas
Coconut milk powder · the milk made from the white flesh
The clear liquid inside a coconut is coconut water. Coconut milk takes another route: the white kernel is broken down and pressed into a milky preparation, which can then be...
Ingredient Atlas
Linolenic acid
Linolenic looks almost like linoleic, but a small spelling difference points to a different fatty acid. Understanding that difference turns a dense-looking label into a story about shape, selected ingredients...
Ingredient Atlas
Linoleic acid
One extra syllable separates linoleic from linolenic, but they are different materials. Following linoleic acid gives a friendly way into the fatty side of cosmetics—and helps explain why an acid...
Ingredient Atlas
Beetroot powder · a bright plant with a binding role
Beetroot is unforgettable for the colour it leaves behind. In a cosmetic powder, that familiar root has another useful story too: its documented functions include helping powdered materials hold together....
