This post was originally published on the now sadly defunct awesome website The Toast in 2014. A reader suggested that I repost it on Lab Muffin… which I thought I did, but apparently that was all a fever dream. Here it is! There’s soap in your mayonnaise! As a scientist with a degree in chemistry, the surge in chemophobia over …
I’ve been a little frustrated with what scientific concepts I can get through in words and crudely drawn illustrations on this here blog. When I teach at my day job, I do a lot of hand-waving, emphatic underlining, symbolic gesturing and smashing together of whiteboard markers, and not having the ability to show movement sometimes feels a bit like I …
Much like “organic” and “all-natural”, “paraben-free” is one of those phrases you’ll see displayed prominently on increasing numbers of skincare and beauty products. What are parabens, what health effects do they have, and should you be avoiding them? Here’s the science behind the marketing. (I’ve written a much simpler rundown of parabens here, if you want a quicker overview.) What …
I’ve done a lot of posts on skincare products I love… now, for something a bit different, here are some that I really hate and would only recommend to people I don’t like. So if I ever recommend these to you… it’s not me, it’s you. I just don’t see our relationship working out. Coffee Scrubs Coffee scrubs are made …
What Is Hyaluronic Acid? Hyaluronic acid (HA), along with its cousin sodium hyaluronate, is an immensely popular ingredient in skincare and makeup. It’s also naturally found in the body. Most of it dwells in the extracellular matrix, the scaffold which holds up the cells of your skin. Hyaluronic acid is found in both the epidermis and the deeper dermis, where …
Honey and bee venom have been used in folk medicine for thousands of years, but they’ve made a recent resurgence in skincare. Here’s the science behind these ingredients. Honey in Skincare Honey is formed from nectar and pollen by bees through a process of partial digestion (don’t think too hard about it if you want to enjoy honey ever again). …
Since writing this post on the influence of pH on exfoliating acid skincare ingredients, I’ve had a lot of questions on how much active free acid there is in specific formulations. The calculation is a bit fiddly to do every time, so I’ve developed an easy spreadsheet to help you predict the free acid content for a product, if you …
Coffee scrubs are making a big comeback. With brands like Frank claiming that the caffeine in coffee scrubs can reduce cellulite, it sounds too good to be true. So are messy coffee scrubs worth it? What is Cellulite? Cellulite, also called lipodystrophy, is a change in how the fat under your skin is shaped, making it look lumpy or dimply …