I am afraid this is old news, though as it happens new to me. I am not sure how I missed it but it turns out that a very large and well conducted survey was carried out into the link between antiperspirants and breast cancer. It was done in 2002 by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in …
Sometime ago I had a question about whether French skincare was any good from a half Egyptian woman living in Canada called Yasmine. She described herself as a “freelance makeup artist, beauty junkie and organic modernist bohemian.” She sounded like an interesting person so when I replied saying that yes French skincare is generally very …
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. Many of these new ideas that have shaped the modern world have also at some stage been used as marketing stories by the cosmetic industry. A great example is …
I have only heard about the Beauty Bible compiled by the redoubtable Jo Fairley recently and I haven’t read it yet. In fact I haven’t actually even seen it for sale anywhere. A quick check on Amazon reveals that like the actual Bible, there are various versions so I am not sure where to start. …
Beauty Bible Author Reveals Truth About Cosmetics And Science Read More »
I was at the Natural Products Show three years ago when I first heard about putting bee venom into cosmetics. There is a steady stream of things like this. Somebody has an idea and takes a stand at a trade fair in the hope of interesting some companies to give them a try. Most …
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. Even here, the laws of natural selection mean that what is effective one year might …
I was asked a question by a journalist who was writing an article on the differences between hand and face creams. It is an interesting question so I thought that now I have plugged my typewriter in I may as well share it more widely. Before we look at the products lets look at the …
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 family overdosing can have some very serious health issues. Vitamin A is fat soluble and …
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 natural and synthetic at the same time.
Lanolin has long had an ill deserved bad reputation. It is in fact one of the most beneficial natural ingredients that you can add to your skincare product.
