Articles

Witch Hazel has been a 'go-to' herb for many natural skin care lovers, a reliable tonic that helps reign in and calm problem skin thanks to its toning and tightening chemistry. But our appetite for astringent chemistry has waned over the last few years, we now talk of microbiome balancing, of hydrating our skin back to health rather than seeking to suppress its natural secretions. Has Witch Hazel had its day or is there still a little something left to discover?

For many of us, the unfolding of the Covid 19 pandemic is confusing, scary even. The things that we used to take for granted about the way modern life operates are rapidly changing and falling out of reach. In fact, things are changing so quickly and dramatically that many of us feel dazed, overwhelmed and deeply confused. By the time you read this, this pandemic may be all over, then again, maybe it will only just be getting started...

Benzalkonium Chloride is one of a handful of recognised actives for alcohol-free hand and surface sanitisation. Here we unpick its chemical name and discover more about what it does, how it does it and its environmental fate.

Using essential oils as your fragrance is a great way to turn what would otherwise just be a 'perception-only' ingredient into an ingredient with the real capacity to bring something positive to the formula. It's not that synthetic fragrances are bad, they give formulators and brand owners a lot of creative freedom, are often very stable, can be formulated with the specifics of a formula or target audience in mind and have great batch-to-batch uniformity but at the end of the day a synthetic fragrance just makes a product smell good whereas essential oils can actually do good.

The relationship between Austin and New Directions started with him attending our skin care and business courses. Since then, Austin has been a client of the technical Help Desk and general business.

Tell a customer that your product contains peptides and you'll always spark their interest even if most of us don't really understand what they are and how they work. We just know that they have the capacity to do great things and great things is what we really want!

Cosmetic brands have been selling themselves as 'paraben free 'or 'sulphate free' for years now but that may be about to stop in EU based markets in a move that for once, sees (un) common sense prevail.

Over the last thirty years the cosmetic industry has turned its attention more and more to the natural world for its ingredients, inspiration and innovation. Indeed, we are now at a time where our cosmetics and the climate cannot be separated from each other. The climate influences the production of our cosmetics, our cosmetics protect us from the effects of the climate. As such, it makes sense for us to take a closer look at how this relationship is developing, how the climate is changing our cosmetics.

The term 'therapeutic grade oil' has become quite popular over the last five or so years but it has no legal or measurable definition and as such is a term of limited value.

The other week I was talking to a client who was looking for confirmation of the Beta Caryophyllene content of the Copaifera Multijuga Resin Oil that we sell. I looked this up and dutifully found the batch we had in store to contain 45% of said aroma chemical. Curious to know why this particular chemical was of importance I asked a few questions and soon discovered that this chemical is thought to be able to bind to a particular cannabinoid receptor that we have in our bodies. I am guessing that some people were then drawn to make the conclusion that the presence of this chemical must mean Copaifera resin oil can affect your mood - maybe a relaxant or a 'feel good' chemical. I wanted to find out if that was indeed possible, especially given that quite a lot of people look to essential oils as mood enhancers.