Should I buy 3-free, 5-free, 6-free or 7-free nail polish?

painting-fingernails

Too many numbers! What’s going on? 3-free polish does not contain dibutyl phthalate, toluene or formaldehyde. 4-free polish does not contain dibutyl phthalate, toluene, formaldehyde or formaldehyde resin. 5-free polish does not contain dibutyl phthalate, toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin or camphor. 6-free polish does not contain dibutyl phthalate, toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, camphor or parabens. 7-free polish does not contain …

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Bath-free Lush Christmas offerings 2013

I don’t take many baths – mainly because I’m never patient enough to wait for the bathtub to fill! Unfortunately, that means that I can only use Lush’s amazing bathtime goodies about 4 times a year (usually on holiday, in a nice clean hotel bathtub I don’t have to clean afterwards – score!). If you’re like me, never fear! Lush …

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Sulfate-Free Shampoo? The Science

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Lots of people say you have to use sulfate-free shampoo to avoid damaging or stripping your hair. There also people who say you have to use shampoo with sulfates to get your hair clean. They are both wrong. I’ve been paying more attention to hair science info on the internet lately. There are a lot of completely wrong explanations, and strong …

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My Top (Mostly Cheap or Free) Haircare Hacks

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I’m pretty lazy with my haircare and I’m bad at sticking to routines. But I also bleached my hair so I could play with pretty colours, which dramatically increased the effort involved to keep my hair looking decent. So in the last few years I’ve been trying out a lot of haircare hacks – these are the ones that’ve changed …

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Korean Sunscreen Reviews: Beauty of Joseon, Isntree, Innisfree, Mary & May

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I recently review a bunch of popular Korean sunscreens for a sponsored video, because most of you are heading into summer in the northern hemisphere. Conveniently I’m heading out of summer, so I’ve actually been trying out tons of sunscreens, and there are some really nice ones in this batch – including a few you’ve probably seen hyped up a …

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Free Sunscreen Science E-Summit!

Sunscreen E-Summit

Here’s a special event for all the sunscreen nerds! I’ve teamed up with Jen of The Eco Well to organise the Sunscreen E-Summit, which is happening 15 May! This is a FREE event featuring some incredible speakers that you’d normally have to pay expensive conference fees to learn from, including academic researchers, ingredient supplier representatives, sunscreen formulators and regulatory experts. …

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Skincare Oils and Free Fatty Acids: The Science

Video: Skincare Oils and Free Fatty Acids: The Science

If you’re a skincare nerd, you may know that different skincare oils have different fatty acid profiles – that is, they differ in terms of which fatty acids they contain e.g. linoleic, linolenic, oleic and lauric acid. The fatty acids have interesting properties. For example, lauric acid is strongly antibacterial, and works better than benzoyl peroxide against Cutibacterium acnes bacteria. …

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Can you freeze your beauty products?

Skincare fridges are taking off, and the question is – what’s the point of refrigerating your beauty products? Why does cold make them last longer? What about freezing your skincare products – is it OK? The short answer is yes, most of the time. Here’s the longer explanation… (also in video form here!) Why do beauty products go off? If …

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