Tag Archives: ingredients

How to make a Hypoallergenic Product

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Colin

There was a lot of interest in hypoallergenic products back in the eighties when I first started as a formulator. Back then the perception was that natural ingredients were the problem. Like a lot of popular ideas it corresponded to … Continue reading →

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Neroli

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Colin

Neroli is an essential oil made from the petals of the bitter orange.  The amount of oil in a petal isn’t very high so it takes a lot of  them to make much oil.  So it isn’t surprising to learn … Continue reading →

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Q10 – Does It Work?

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Colin

The pace of scientific advance over the last couple of centuries has been astonishing. Innovations have poured out of laboratories and workshops transforming our lives forever. Very few of the new ideas that have shaped the modern world have avoided … Continue reading →

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Essential Oils Against Head Lice

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Colin

Head lice are a recurrent problem all over the world. The lice are no respecters of income levels, general cleanliness and the degree of diligence of the child’s mother. The only thing they take notice of is effective anti-lice treatments. … Continue reading →

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Is Retinol About To Be Banned In Cosmetics?

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Colin

Retinol is one of a number of vitamin A derivatives that is used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.  When I wrote about it last time I glossed over one of its drawbacks.  Along with the rest of the vitamin A … Continue reading →

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Coco-glucoside

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Colin

A lot of scientists are keen to point out that ‘safe’ and ‘natural’ don’t always go together.  It is equally true that ‘synthetic’ and ‘toxic’ aren’t the same thing either.  Another less obvious pairing is that something can be both … Continue reading →

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Lanolin

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Colin

I wrote recently about hypoallergenic products and and pointed out that one of the few ingredients that we have any data on the incidence of allergic reactions is lanolin. This isn’t a coincidence. Lanolin was really the original cosmetic ingredient … Continue reading →

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Why The Dose Really Matters

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Colin

Coffee is the bloggers greatest friend, though being English I personally take tea. Both have the same effect, they are both good caffeine sources which is great for the late nights you have to spend looking for spelling errors and … Continue reading →

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Why natural oils are better for your skin

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Colin

Despite what a lot of marketing suggests, there is no particular reason to suppose that natural ingredients are safer or superior to synthetic ones.  It depends on what you are doing with them.  It’s horses for courses.  You pick the … Continue reading →

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1,4-Dioxane: How I fell for a scare story

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Colin

I got a question from iMarie.  “What are your thoughts about sulfates being contaminated with 1,4-dioxane? Thanks!” Well that brought back some memories.

Posted in Beauty News, Detergents, Ingredients, Scaremongers | Tagged , , | 3 Comments