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 lauryl sulfate
SLS has become so familiar as an abbreviation that it can obscure the ingredient itself. Behind those three letters is a water-soluble washing material with a very direct job: helping...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium cocoyl glycinate
The feel of foam can be designed, and the ingredients surrounding a cleanser can help shape it. Sodium cocoyl glycinate offers a particularly interesting example: in a documented formulation study,...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium phytate
A powder with a long name can be a remarkably considerate member of a formula. Sodium phytate helps keep troublesome metal ions occupied. Its story leads from mineral reserves in...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium cocoyl glutamate
An amino-acid connection in a shampoo does not always lead to a protein treatment. Sometimes it leads to the ingredient doing the washing. Sodium cocoyl glutamate takes glutamic-acid material and...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium gluconate
Sugar syrup, fermentation and a quiet talent for managing minerals: sodium gluconate has a much richer story than its name suggests. Inside a solid cleanser, it can help with the...
Ingredient Atlas
Sodium coco-sulfate
A small white granule can carry the washing part of a shampoo bar. Sodium coco-sulfate connects coconut-related fatty material with sulfate chemistry, creating a cleanser that is at home in...
Ingredient Atlas
Phytic acid
A seed needs a way to keep important minerals ready for its first days of growth. Phytic acid belongs to that hidden store cupboard. In a cosmetic formula, its ability...
Ingredient Atlas
Decyl glucoside
A glucose connection can lead somewhere very different from sweetness. In decyl glucoside, it becomes part of a washing ingredient, joined to a fatty-alcohol component. Follow that connection and an...
Ingredient Atlas
Magnesium hydroxide
A pale powder in a deodorant can have a more interesting job than soaking things up. Magnesium hydroxide brings a mineral story, a surprising route from seawater, and a useful...
Ingredient Atlas
Coco-glucoside
Coconut and glucose make an unexpected partnership in the wash basin. Prepared together, they lead to a cleansing ingredient with a water-friendly side and a fatty side. Coco-glucoside’s story is...
Ingredient Atlas
Glyceryl stearate
A cream can owe some of its satisfying body to a material that begins as an off-white powder. Glyceryl Stearate is a familiar example: an ester that helps organise fatty...
Ingredient Atlas
Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine
Some shampoo names tell you almost nothing at first glance, yet describe ingredients that help make a wash feel familiar. Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine is one: a prepared cleanser used to support...
