Octocrylene Causes Cancer? and I’m Propaganda Now

There’s been a recent study published about the sunscreen ingredient octocrylene turning into benzophenone over time. According to the paper, “benzophenone is a mutagen, carcinogen, and endocrine disruptor”. I wasn’t going to do a proper analysis of this paper because it only really got lots of attention in France and not many other places, but then I saw that I …

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Do They Work? Evy 6-Hour Sunscreen, Dermablend Drops in SPF

Evy & Dermablend: Do They Work?

Being the “sunscreen nerd” person, I get a lot of questions about unusual sunscreen products and whether or not their claims work out. Last time I talked about the Colorescience powder sunscreen and the Skinnies “pea-sized amount” claim. Related post: Do They Work? Colorescience SPF Powder, Skinnies “Pea-Sized Amount” (with video) This time I’m talking about two more products that people …

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Sneaky Marketing? The Inkey List Succinic Acid Acne Treatment

The Inkey List Succinic Acid Acne Treatment

The Inkey List are a brand that I generally quite like (well not anymore, now that I’ve seen their response to me raising this issue, and some of their other practices). They’re probably the main competitor to The Ordinary, which I also quite like. Both brands have lots of products, and many of them work well on my skin. They’re …

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How to Protect Your Skin Against Blue Light: an Update

Blue light protection products

I’ve talked about visible light and blue light, and their effects on pigmentation in lots of detail before. There’s been more studies done since then – fortunately my conclusions are still correct! In short, the vast majority of us don’t have to worry about visible light or blue light coming from our screens. There just isn’t enough light coming from …

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Do We Need to Worry About Heat From Sunscreens?

Video - IR camera

One of the big misconceptions about sunscreens is how they work, in particular chemical and physical sunscreens. All sunscreens work mostly by absorbing UV and converting it to heat. I’ve talked about this a whole bunch of times before, and I recently did a deep dive about the mechanisms behind how chemical and physical sunscreens work. Related post: How Do Sunscreens …

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How Do Sunscreens Work? The Science

Sunscreen mechanism thumbnail

I’ve had a lot of people ask me to explain the nitty gritty behind how sunscreen ingredients work. I warned everyone it would be super nerdy and really quite complicated, but a lot of people said it was fine… so here it is: the deep dive into how sunscreen ingredients work! A warning: this goes into physical chemistry, at upper …

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Should you avoid aluminium in deodorants? The science

I’ve recently been approached by several natural deodorant companies to talk about the health risks of aluminium-containing antiperspirants. As much as I’d like that sweet sweet cheque… I can’t. Because the science just isn’t there. So instead, I’m going to debunk the aluminium scaremongering. (Note to deodorant companies: There are valid reasons to switch to natural deodorants. Aluminium ingredients can …

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Do They Work? Colorescience SPF Powder, Skinnies “Pea-Sized Amount”

Colorescience and Skinnies: Do They Work?

I’ve had a lot of questions about certain sunscreen products with unusual claims, and what I think of them. I’ll be talking about what I personally think of the claims for 2 products in this post, but there are a lot more products that I’ll talk about later – let me know if there are more products you’re wondering about …

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