Articles

Useful material on cosmetic chemistry, ingredients and growing your business

Antioxidants in Skincare: Why Most Serums Oxidize Before They Work

Antioxidants in skincare are molecules — vitamin C, vitamin E, ferulic acid, resveratrol, astaxanthin — that donate electrons to neutralise free radicals generated by UV light and pollution before those radicals damage collagen, lipids and DNA. L-ascorbic acid works at 10–20% and pH 3.5, while tocop

7 min28 Sep 2026

Ingredients

How to Use Hyaluronic Acid: A Cosmetic Chemist's Molecular Weight Guide

Apply hyaluronic acid serum to damp skin, then seal with a moisturiser or oil within 60 seconds — HA is a humectant that pulls water from the air or from deeper skin layers, and without an occlusive on top, low humidity can leave skin feeling tighter than before. Use a blend of low- and high-molecul

7 min25 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Why your balm feels greasy when your cream does not

Why your balm feels greasy when your cream does not Two complaints, and they arrive from the same jar. The first is in the warm kitchen: you rub in the balm and ten minutes later your hands still look polished, while the cream you made from the same oils, at a similar total load, sank in and said no

15 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Why rosehip oil smells like crayons after three months

Why rosehip oil smells like crayons after three months You bought it in the spring: a small amber bottle, cold-pressed, more expensive per millilitre than anything else on the shelf. You used it twice, put it in the bathroom cabinet, and forgot about it. Now it is September and you have opened it ag

15 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Why castor oil makes your lip balm sticky

Why castor oil makes your lip balm sticky You made a lip balm to a recipe you found, with castor oil in it because every lipstick recipe has castor oil in it. It goes on well, the colour is even, and then your lips stick to each other. Not a disaster — a tug, a tackiness, a film that is still there

17 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Shea, cocoa or mango: which butter makes the balm you want

Shea, cocoa or mango: which butter makes the balm you want You made a body butter in March and it was exactly right: firm in the tin, soft under a thumb, spread without dragging. In July you opened the same tin and found a puddle with a skin on it. In January you opened it again and had to gouge at

14 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Refined or unrefined: what you pay for in a cold-pressed oil

Refined or unrefined: what you pay for in a cold-pressed oil Two listings, same oil, same supplier. One says refined ; the other says unrefined, cold pressed, virgin , has a nicer photograph, and costs two or three times as much per kilo. You are trying to work out whether the difference is a real m

16 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Pomegranate seed oil: is it worth the price?

Pomegranate seed oil: is it worth the price? The bottle is 30 ml. It is dark glass, it is priced in pounds like a decent bottle of gin, and the reason you have not pressed buy yet is that everything you have read about it says the same three words: rich in punicic acid. Not what punicic acid does. N

14 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Is the erucic acid in British rapeseed oil a problem?

Is the erucic acid in British rapeseed oil a problem? There is a bottle of cold-pressed British rapeseed oil in the kitchen, the golden kind from a farm shop or the supermarket's own, and it costs a fraction of what the cosmetic suppliers want for almond. Every spring you watch whole counties of the

15 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Is jojoba oil good for oily skin? What the chemistry says

Is jojoba oil good for oily skin? What the chemistry says You have oily skin, or skin that breaks out, and everything you read says the same thing: jojoba is the one oil that is safe, because it is "just like your skin's own sebum". Your skin recognises it. It balances oil production. It will not cl

15 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

How to turn a body oil into a balm without beeswax

How to turn a body oil into a balm without beeswax You have a body oil that works. Now you want it as a balm — something solid in a tin that softens under a thumb and does not leak into a handbag. Every recipe you find says the same thing: melt in some beeswax. Maybe you would rather not. Maybe the

15 min22 Sep 2026

Ingredients

Why one oil feels light and another feels heavy on the skin

Why one oil feels light and another feels heavy on the skin Two bottles on the bench. The supplier calls one of them light and dry-feel and the other one rich and cushioning. You put a drop of the "light" one on your cheek and half an hour later it is still sitting there with a shine on it, while th

15 min22 Sep 2026

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