Today I want to talk about something awkward but necessary: sexual wellbeing. Sexual wellbeing is an extremely important but taboo and under-discussed aspect of physical and psychological health. If you know me in real life, you may want to stop reading around here and detour to the safer waters of sunscreen quantities or exfoliating or hair protectants instead. Or not, …
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that hand and body washes containing certain antibacterial ingredients can no longer be widely sold (the final rule can be found here, and the consumer update is here). Why have they been banned? The Banned Antibacterial Ingredients In high enough concentrations, antibacterial ingredients kill bacteria either by rupturing their membranes (their …
Biotin, also known as vitamin B7 or vitamin H, pops up in every supplement marketed for strengthening hair and nails. Do biotin supplements actually work for brittle nails? The answer is – it depends. Gah! Read on for the gory details… Are you getting enough biotin in your diet? Nutritional supplements generally only make a difference if you’re not getting …
The news broke recently that nail polish can harm your health (again!). This time, it’s triphenyl phosphate, a chemical used in nail polish to increase flexibility – it’s also used as a fire retardant. It’s a potential endocrine disruptor (“it could make you fat!”), and was found to be increased around seven-fold – or so it was reported. In particular, …
This “lead in lipstick” hoax has been going around Facebook again – it’s actually pretty ancient (goes back to the early 2000s) and refuses to die. Here’s one version: All the versions of this chain email are slightly different but all have the same themes… and all are BS. There’s a whole bunch of wrong in this scary-sounding PSA. Firstly: …
You may have seen DIY sunscreen recipes going around on blogs and Pinterest, promising safe sun protection with gentle, natural ingredients. Generally the ingredients will be zinc oxide, a popular physical sunscreen ingredient (often in the form of diaper rash cream), and some plant oils such as coconut oil. Now, I am partial to a bit of DIY skincare. I …
If you’re like me, Christmas is 1/3 food, 1/3 fun and 1/3 hair-tearing stress. Gift-buying, feast-cooking and end-of-year deadlines – it gets pretty overwhelming come mid-December! If tea-drinking, baths and stress balls aren’t cutting it, it might be time to step up to a professional massage, which has lots of health benefits according to science! How to tell if you’re …
Here’s the next installment in my sunscreen review series – this time we’re looking at La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Comfort Creme SPF50+ and Uriage Bariésun Creme SPF30. Both of these French sunscreen are targeted at dry/normal skin, not oily/normal skin like mine, so it’s quite likely that they’ll behave differently on drier skin. Unlike the fluid sunscreens I’ll be reviewing …