My go-to antiperspirant deodorant, Nivea Stress Protect, has recently come out with a clinical strength version, and since it’s been a while since I blogged about underarm matters, I thought it was time to revisit the basics of sweat science… What’s the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant? Deodorant targets smell. It usually contains fragrance, and sometimes antibacterials too to kill …
Now that we’re in the 21st century, we all know smoking is bad for your health and gives you cancer – in fact, it’s considered the single biggest preventable cause of death and disease. But because that doesn’t happen until we’re older, and we humans tend to ignore long-term risks (I know I certainly do!), so it’s easy to convince …
Formaldehyde is listed as an ingredient in a number of beauty products (in particular, nail strengtheners and Brazilian Blowout-style hair treatments), and there’s been some controversy about whether or not it’s really in these products. In particular, cosmetic chemist Doug Schoon has stated that formaldehyde in water readily reacts to form another chemical, methylene glycol. Most of the top search …
This week’s Fact-check (it’s late, I know, sorry!) looks at another controversial skincare ingredient, hydroquinone. What is hydroquinone, what benefits does it have in skincare, why do people say it’s harmful, and is it actually bad? Let’s find out… What is hydroquinone? Hydroquinone (sometimes referred to as “HQ”) is a chemical with the structure shown below: It occurs naturally in …
Today’s Fact-check Friday focuses on one of the most unfairly demonised of chemicals in beauty products: parabens. You probably own at least one beauty product that proudly declares itself to be paraben-free – is there any reason to buy more, or is it pure marketing? What are parabens? Parabens are chemicals derived from a chemical called parahydroxybenzoic acid, with this …
In the beauty world, hydrogen peroxide is the bleaching agent par excellence. It whitens hair, nails and teeth as well as having a host of household uses. I’ll expand more on the chemistry behind how it works in a later post, but it’s the practical use of hydrogen peroxide in teeth whitening that will be the focus of this post. …
My first real cosmetic purchase was deodorant when I started high school, but not until recently did I really think about deodorant and how it works. So I did a little digging and here’s what I found: (not actually sweat) How is sweat produced and why does it smell? There are two types of glands which produce sweat: eccrine and …
(Photo credit: Steve Ford Elliott) Lots of personal care products proudly say they’re “SLS-free”. What was wrong with it in the first place? Sodium lauryl sulfate (also known as sodium dodecyl sulfate, or sodium coco-sulfate) is found in many personal care products, such as shampoo, toothpaste . It looks like this: It has an oil-soluble “tail” (on the left) and …