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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Do aromatherapy and essential oils actually work?

As a scientist whose PhD involved natural product synthesis and pharmacology (that’s where you get chemicals out of nature (plants, bacteria, marine sponges etc.) in the hopes that they’ll become, or lead to the development, of a useful drug one day), I find alternative medicine very interesting. While a LOT of it is hokum, designed to trap innocent people into …

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Perfume science: body chemistry and why you love the smells I hate

I hope you enjoyed my guest week! I’m back today with some hardcore beauty science, looking at the fascinatingly confusing world of perfumery. Do you love the smell of roses? It may reveal more about you than you think! People have been using perfumes for over 5000 years. But what makes one person like a scent and another hate it, …

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Lush Fragrance review – Big, Twilight and Furze

Attention Aussie ladies! Lush’s annual forum special perfumes are available this weekend only at their online store – every year, the Lush forumites vote for fragrances to be made based on the scents from particular products, and the super limited edition perfumes are available online for a very very short time. This year the options are Big, Twilight, Snowcake, Creamy …

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My 10 favourite scented products right now

Sometimes when I’m feeling down, a whiff of a scented product can make me feel a tad better. Here are ten of my favourite “scentsations” (I apologise profusely for the pun, it’s Monday!): Elume Creme Caramel Candle – I haven’t even lit this yet but I’m already in love. It occupies a permanent place on my bedside table, so I …

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How do deodorants work?

My first real cosmetic purchase was deodorant when I started high school, but not until recently did I really think about deodorant and how it works. So I did a little digging and here’s what I found: (not actually sweat) How is sweat produced and why does it smell? There are two types of glands which produce sweat: eccrine and …

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Lab Muffin’s top beauty products of 2012

2012 is nearly over, so here’s a round-up of the beauty products that got the most use this year (nail polish excluded): Skinfood Pineapple Peeling Gel (reviewed here) – My go-to exfoliator when my skin feels like it needs a good scrub. It’s a mix of physical and chemical exfoliant, and it lives in my shower caddy pretty much permanently.PVA …

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