Retinol is one of the most highly hyped anti-aging skincare ingredients. But what is it, and what exactly does it do? That’s the focus of this Fact-check Friday! What does retinol do? Retinol is a form of vitamin A. Other forms of vitamin A in skincare that you may be familiar with include isotretinoin (better known as Accutane) and …
Fact-check Feature is a new series here on Lab Muffin, where I’ll be answering beauty questions and busting beauty myths. Got a question? Email me, or leave me a comment. I’ve heard a lot about sun exposure and chemical exfoliants. What precautions do I need to take? Chemical exfoliants, unlike physical exfoliants, are products that you leave on your skin. …
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. …
One of the most common things I’m asked is, “Does it matter what order I apply my moisturisers in?” Another is, “Why do you say mineral oil is a good moisturiser when it doesn’t contain anything that’s good for your skin?” The answer to both these questions lies in the concept of layering. The best type of layering. (Picture credit: Elin …
After Part 1, where I stained my nails (For Science!) to work out how best to prevent staining, the obvious next step was to figure out stain removal! I worked out in Part 1 that the teal colour is CI 77288, which is chromium(III) oxide. Here are my nails again – argh! I had to live with this for two …
Scientifically blonde. How does hair straightening work? There are a few different procedures for hair straightening, and different types of hair are better suited to different ones. They all work on similar principles though, and it’s actually the same as for perming. It’s not too complex, and you should believe me on this one because Elle Woods agrees. So there. …
There are a few common sciencey questions I get asked a lot, and for some of them, I have a strong suspicion on how they work, but I can’t confirm it properly (without misappropriating university resources, anyway). So here’s a post where I speculate about how things work, which may or may not turn into a series of posts… How …
Lately I’ve had a few nasty pimples appear on my face, including a few of those deep, nasty bumps that hang around for ages and make you start to think you may have a tumour, as well as a field of little clogged pores. I mainly think it was diet and lifestyle (lack of sleep, possibly also my habit of …