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
bk-scent-life
Why have I stopped noticing my own perfume?
You leave home with a fragrance you love. By the time you open your laptop, it seems to have disappeared. Then someone beside you says, “That smells lovely.” Both experiences...
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When several scents meet
The perfume you choose is rarely the first smell of your morning. Cleanser, deodorant, moisturiser, hair products and laundry may already have left an impression. Layering starts by noticing that...
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Long-lasting, far-reaching, or simply there?
“Does it last?” sounds like one question. In practice, you might mean “Will I still notice it on my wrist?”, “Will someone beside me notice it?” or “Will it leave...
Ingredient Atlas
Ingredient Atlas
An illustrated guide to the materials, textures and formulation roles of solid cosmetics.
Ingredient Atlas
Zinc ricinoleate
Castor oil’s chemistry can take a new direction when a related fatty acid is made into a zinc salt.
Ingredient Atlas
Vitamin E · tocopherol
An oily formula has a story after it is made: air and storage can change its scent and character.
Ingredient Atlas
Volcanic ash
A volcano’s ash contains fragments of glass, crystals and rock. In a cosmetic, the quieter story is how those fragments are selected and delivered in a prepared powder.
Ingredient Atlas
Ylang-ylang essential oil
Ylang-ylang begins with yellow petals that hang like loose ribbons from a tropical tree. Their scent does not arrive at the bottle all at once: the distiller can collect different...
Ingredient Atlas
Sunflower wax
The sunflower can supply flow as an oil and support as a wax. A finished stick brings those two material personalities together in the same small object.
Ingredient Atlas
Tea tree essential oil
Tea tree essential oil begins far from the small bottle: rows of leafy plants, a harvest to schedule and a distillery waiting for the crop.
Ingredient Atlas
Sweet almond oil
Before almond oil reaches a cosmetic, blossom opens and pollen moves between orchard trees. The harvested kernel then takes another journey: out of its shell, into a recovered oil, and...
Ingredient Atlas
Spearmint essential oil
A bunch of spearmint on the kitchen counter has a friendly, rounded scent. In a wash bar, those leaves have already made a longer journey through harvesting and distillation, and...
