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
Squalane
Squalane has one of beauty's smallest spelling differences with one of its most useful stories. Squalane and squalene are related, but the final vowel points towards a change in the...
Ingredient Atlas
Tapioca starch
Tapioca begins underground, but its most useful cosmetic story is not about a root-shaped ingredient. It is about separating tiny starch granules from the rest of that root, then using...
Ingredient Atlas
Jojoba esters
Jojoba already challenges the ordinary meaning of oil: its liquid is rich in wax esters. Jojoba Esters takes that starting material in another direction, from creamy pastes to hard waxes...
Ingredient Atlas
Corn starch
A corn kernel contains more than one useful material. Wet milling can separate its starch, germ, fibre and protein into different streams. Corn starch's cosmetic story begins with that sorting:...
Ingredient Atlas
Dimethicone
A swipe can feel silky without a drop of silk in the formula. Dimethicone is one reason: a fluid material built from repeating units, available in different thicknesses, that helps...
Ingredient Atlas
Arrowroot powder
Arrowroot keeps its useful store underground. Beneath the green leaves are fleshy rhizomes—horizontal stems that look rather like roots. Following that hidden part of the plant makes an everyday powder...
Ingredient Atlas
C12–15 alkyl benzoate
A solid perfume can keep its neat shape in a tin and still slip across the skin. That apparent contradiction is a good way into C12–15 Alkyl Benzoate: a liquid...
Ingredient Atlas
Meadowfoam seed oil
A field of creamy white flowers can look like a layer of sea foam resting on land. Meadowfoam earns its name before a single seed is pressed. The oil’s story...
Ingredient Atlas
Stearamidopropyl dimethylamine
A conditioner ingredient can arrive as a waxy pastille and become useful in a different state inside the recipe. Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine brings a particularly satisfying twist: a small acid can...
Ingredient Atlas
Lanolin
A wool jumper and a rich lip product can begin with different parts of the same fleece. The fibres become textiles; the waxy material recovered when raw wool is washed...
Ingredient Atlas
Conditioning honey
Honey is already a transformation: bees turn flower nectar into a concentrated store. Its cosmetic story can include another transformation. Hydroxypropyltrimonium Honey takes a familiar bee-derived starting material and prepares...
Ingredient Atlas
Cupuaçu butter
A cupuaçu fruit can weigh as much as a small bag of groceries, yet the butter in a cosmetic begins with something hidden inside: its seeds. Follow them past the...
