My boyfriend loves the outdoors, and while I try to get along with nature, it tries its darnedest to destroy me with pollen and massive welts from mosquitoes. Last time he dragged me camping in Australia (the North Coast, a beautiful place where there’s beach and bush), I had a limited amount I could take with me but there was …
A reader emailed me this question: I have been finding conflicting information even among reputable sources on whether toners serve any purpose or what they’re supposed to be used for. I like using a gentle toner for my oily skin, but what I’m wondering is whether it’s alright to apply with a spray bottle instead of a cotton pad. Would …
Sunscreens from French brands are a pretty big deal right now – they have a reputation for being well formulated (no grease! no white cast!) and include super stable and effective sunscreen ingredients. I visited France recently and hauled a whole bunch of French sunscreens to try, along with a few other skincare goodies. Most of these brands are available …
Montagne Jeunesse are a cult UK brand that I hadn’t noticed in Australian stores til recently. They do fun masks with natural ingredients – kind of like a longer lasting, less fresh Lush. Even if you’ve never heard of them, you might recognise their distinctive, Carmen Miranda-ish fruit-on-head packaging: I picked up the Creamy Coconut and Manuka Honey Peel Off …
For years, we’ve been using just 2 solvents, ethyl acetate and acetone, to remove nail polish. But recently a whole host of new removers containing neither of those have made their way onto the market – what are they, and are they worth a shot? Are they really solvent-free? No. Anything that dissolves something else up is a solvent – …
All the way back in April 2012, I wrote a post on BB creams. Fast forward almost two and a half years and the “alphabet cream” market has exploded! What does it all mean? What’s a BB cream again? BB stands for beauty balm, blemish balm or beblesh balm. They’re multipurpose products that provide colour and coverage, as well as …
I haven’t been painting my nails much lately, but here’s some nail art I recently did with my Pretty Serious collaboration shade, Undercover Mermaid. The base is Undercover Mermaid, the black shade is Skinfood Black Stone and the purple/green duochrome is Face of Australia Magneto from the new Dark Side collection. As you can probably tell, I’m really in love …
It’s the second part of my soap making post! Last time we looked at the chemistry behind soap making (also called saponification) – today we’re looking at how to actually make a bar of soap, using ingredients from the supermarket. Related Post: Make Your Own Soap! Part 1: The Chemistry Behind Soap Making From the previous chemistry post, we know that …