Is Phenoxyethanol Banned in Japan? My recent post on phenoxyethanol prompted this question on Twitter. The answer is no it isn’t. Phenoxyethanol is limited to 1% in Japan exactly as it is in the European Union. But why did my twitter chum think it might be. I did a quick google and found that there do seem to be quite a lot of people who think it is banned in Japan. Continue reading
Phenoxyethanol is the synthetic petrochemical derivative that the natural sector approves of.
Phenoxyethanol is a preservative that hasn’t gathered a huge amount of attention until recently. This is largely because of what it isn’t. It isn’t a formaldehyde donor. It isn’t particularly sensitising. It has never been linked with cancer. Basically it has kept its head down and nobody has taken a lot of notice of it. This has changed recently, but I will get onto that a bit later. First lets look at its good points and why it has been so widely used despite not being talked about very much. Continue reading
Long standing reader Ffiona has not only a question but also some happy news as she expecting her first baby in July.
Hello Colin love the blog I always scan my feeds to see if you have written anything new and read that first. I have another question, this time about phthalates. I have seen stuff that says pregnant women should avoid fragrances because they contain phthalates. Is this just a scare story or is there something in it?
Thanks for the kind words Ffiona and thanks for sticking with Colin’s Beauty Pages for such long time. So what is the relationship between phthalates, fragrances and pregnancy? Continue reading
Coconuts are a good source of caprylic capric triglycerides
The names of cosmetic ingredients, and food ingredients, often make them sound a lot more complicated than they really are. Caprylic capric triglyceride is a name that often appears on ingredient lists and I doubt that many people take much notice of it or wonder where it comes from. But it is, usually, simply a very purified form of coconut oil. It is defined by its composition, so it is possible to make it from similar oils such as palm oil as well. Continue reading
I was listening to a talk about marketing the other day and the speaker referred to the old fairy story of the elves and the shoemaker. The shoemaker was down on his luck and down to his last pieces of leather. It was desperate times – even if he could make a pair of shoes from them the price he could get wouldn’t cover his living costs and still leave enough over to buy more leather to keep going.
I enjoy being a cosmetic chemist, but like every job some things can be a bit tedious. None is more so than complying with legislation. In California they have a particularly irritating example of this in the form of a thing called Proposition 65, which includes a list of chemicals that California has decided are linked to cancer. If you sell a cosmetic containing any of these chemicals you have to go online and notify the state of this fact via a particularly user-unfriendly database. The list is quite long and is comprised mainly of chemicals I have never heard of, or that would have no use in any cosmetic product. Continue reading
I moved house a few weeks ago. Moving is a good opportunity to change habits and I have thought for a while I ought to improve my personal grooming skills. So I dumped all my products and personal care technology and I am now looking at replacing them all with new and better ones. So lets start at the beginning. Despite sporting a beard, I still need a razor. So I spent some time in my local supermarket looking at the offerings. Continue reading
Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish is one of those products that not everybody has heard of, but which has a cult following. But as cult followings go, it is quite a big one. I think Liz Earle as a brand is just outside the ‘household name’ category but is well on its way to becoming one. And this is the product that more than any other has propelled it in that direction. Continue reading
Here is a question that comes up every now and again. Is soft water better for skin? Suzanne has noticed that her skin condition is better when she uses soft water. I’ll let her speak for herself.
Hi Colin, First let me say I’ve only recently found your blog but I think it’s great, very sensible advice, wish I’d known about it earlier. Perhaps you could answer this question for me? I live near London in a very hard water area. When I go to stay in other, more rural parts of the country, I am amazed at how good my skin looks and feels after just a few days. Is this because the water is cleaner, or contains less limescale, or is less chlorinated? My skin is sensitive but not dry, and I find that washing in water at home produces a ‘taut’ feeling, even if I use no soap or cleanser. I don’t get this feeling in soft water areas. To get rid of the ‘taut’ feeling, I apply moisturiser, very sparingly, but often find that I then get whiteheads, blackheads and milia, I’m often better off without moisturiser at all. How can I reproduce the wonderful results I get in soft water areas at home? Is it necessary to spend upwards of £500 on a home softener system – which may not do the job anyway as this is not ‘natural’ soft water? I have bought a ‘Rainshow’r’ chlorine remover, and was thinking of adding a little salt or some bicarbonate of soda to my bath water? Grateful for any suggestions! Suzanne Continue reading
EDTA works because of its shape and its negative charges
EDTA turns up near the bottom of the ingredient lists of lots of different personal care products. You also see disodium EDTA and tetrasodium EDTA. For all intents and purposes these are the same – they are just different ways of delivering the same thing. Continue reading
The Beaut.ie blog is always buzzing.
