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
Hydrolyzed keratin
A wool fibre and a liquid protein ingredient can look worlds apart. Hydrolyzed keratin follows the work between them: breaking protein chains into useful fragments, specifying the resulting mixture and...
Ingredient Atlas
Jojoba
Jojoba offers a pleasing surprise: a liquid that belongs to wax chemistry. Its desert shrub, seed reserves and processed derivatives let you follow the difference between what a material is...
Ingredient Atlas
Illite
A green clay can look familiar long before its mineral name does. Illite gives that colour story a firmer foundation: fine, layered particles with a different relationship to water from...
Ingredient Atlas
Jojoba wax
Jojoba’s familiar flowing material is rich in wax esters. Hydrogenation gives it a firmer preparation, useful for building a different kind of texture.
Ingredient Atlas
Hectorite
Some of a product’s most useful work happens while it is standing still. Hectorite can help organise a mixture so that particles stay distributed, then let that mixture move differently...
Ingredient Atlas
Glycerin
A glycerin droplet is glossy and syrupy, yet it readily joins water. Following that small surprise leads from fat chemistry and old soap-making records to the moisture-related work happening inside...
Ingredient Atlas
Grapefruit peel essential oil
Cut a grapefruit and the juicy centre takes the attention. The essential-oil story begins in the rind: a bright aromatic layer with a slightly bitter edge, ready to take a...
Ingredient Atlas
Ghassoul · rhassoul clay
Ghassoul begins with a Moroccan mineral deposit and carries a long association with washing traditions.
Ingredient Atlas
French green clay
A green colour is an inviting first clue, but the back of the pack opens the more interesting story. French green clay can describe different mineral preparations, each with its...
Ingredient Atlas
Geranium essential oil
A rose-like impression can begin with a geranium leaf. Look closer than a garden photograph allows and the foliage has another surprise: tiny surface structures that researchers examine when studying...
Ingredient Atlas
Blue gum eucalyptus essential oil
Blue-grey round eucalyptus leaves may remind you of a florist’s bunch; longer green leaves tell another part of the same blue-gum story.
Ingredient Atlas
Coconut oil
Coconut oil makes temperature part of its story: the prepared fat can firm up in a cool setting and flow as it warms.
