Author: It's all in my hands

Can you recognize a good Shampoo? pt.3

So here we are, with the third part of our “Can you recognize a good Shampoo” posts! (you can check pt.1 and pt.2).

We have discussed the most commonly used surfactants; we know that usually anionic surfactants are the ones which perform the best on the hair because of their negative charge which makes them feel more “conditioning” (it actually increases their “wetting ability”) and at the same time, for the same reason, they tend to be more aggressive on our skin/scalp; we have also talked about the most commonly used eco-friendly and delicate surfactants (the glucosides); I know I am very far from having covered all the possible combination of surfactants, but that was not my intent from the beginning, as it would be an impossible task: surfactant combinations can be infinite! 😉

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Can you recognize a good shampoo? pt.2

Hello there!
Here we are at the second part of the “Can you recognize a good shampoo?”
We have learnt the basics of understanding a shampoo based on ANIONIC surfactants and, in the specific, based on the combination SLES and Cocamidopropyl Betaine, but there is so much more we need to learn! 😀

Canyourecognizeagoodshampoo.jpg

So today we learn about another surfactant-combination we easily find in shampoos: combination of glucosides!

The glucosides are a wide variety of NON-IONIC (this means they don’t have “electric charge”) surfactants which are usually easily biodegradable; therefore many bio-shampoos contain this combination of surfactants.
The most common glucosides which you will find in an INCI are: Lauryl Glucoside, Decyl Glucoside, Coco Glucoside, and Caprylyl/Capric Glucoside.

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Can you recognize a good Shampoo? pt. 1

Hello there! 😀
I have been doing some new recipes but mostly I have been repeating my favorite Banana Smoothie Hair Conditioner and my last Shampoo. These days I am trying to formulate a gel with aloe vera for soothing the scalp and maybe a gel for face, because here it is already starting to be quite warm and the winter cream is too heavy already!

However… this post will be about being able to recognize (or at least attempt to recognize…) a good shampoo from its INCI!
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INCI?
The INCI is simply the list of ingredients which are inside the product. The ingredients are in order of their percentage except for those ingredients which are lower than 1%: these ingredients will appear in the end of the recipe but their order can be mixed (which means that for example if you have 0.08% of Q10 and 0.8% of a preservative… probably the company will add the Q10 name before the name of the preservative even if the real concentration of Q10 is actually 1/10th the one of the preservative) 😀

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Recognizing a natural soap from its INCI

Hello there! 😀

I have decided to start the new round of posts about recognizing cosmetics by their INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) talking about SOAP.

NaturalSoap

It might seem a silly post but it is not at all! Many cosmetic brands sell soaps which are, in reality, not even real soaps 😀 so keep reading! 😉

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Is this a good cosmetic?

Hello there! 😀

I have decided to attempt a new “topic” on this blog: I will still be talking about cosmetics but not only from the point of view of the “do it yourself”!

The thing is that I don’t believe that making these cosmetics at home (I mean, those I have published here, like creams, serums, shampoos, soaps…) is anything particularly difficult.
Yes, it took time and effort to learn about cosmetic ingredients and it took time and a lot of mistakes to learn how to make things; however I am so happy and satisfied of what I can make by myself now, that I just cannot stop trying to help people in opening their eyes and learning how to make things on their own 😀
However, what I noticed among many of my friends, is that often they see what I do as something IMPOSSIBLE to learn.
Even this blog: I try to make things sound as easy as I can and I don’t think my recipes are difficult (the most complex thing one has to do is to measure some substances, heat them up, mix them and tadaaa 😀 ) but STILL it doesn’t seem enough to make people feel confident in “throwing themselves” into this (not so) magic world of making real cosmetics at home. 😀 😀 😀 
If you add this feeling to the fact that most of my recipes require ingredients difficult to find (at least emulsifiers have to be bought from specific sellers)… I came to the conclusion that many people feel discouraged even to start trying! 😦 

So this is what I have decided: 
I am going to start a new TOPIC on this blog: I will teach you how to recognize a product with good cosmetic ingredients from one with not so good ones 😀
Therefore, for those of you who don’t feel yet confident to start making cosmetics at home, you will be able to go to your local market and purchase an already made shampoo, or a cream, or a serum… finally knowing what you are applying on your face!
I would like to teach you how to be able to choose without listening to the advertising of the cosmetic, but rather with being able to recognize what’s inside.
(Anyway don’t fear: I will keep posting recipes as well! 😀 I am just giving you time to get more acquainted with cosmetic ingredients… 😀 )

But I have to WARN YOU!!!
1) I am not an “all natural” nazi: I will talk about natural and synthetic ingredients, how to spot (or at least try to spot) if a cosmetic was formulated well or not… but I want to make clear that since every skin is different, if your skin has always been perfect even at using daily silicon foundation… I don’t see why you should stop using silicon foundation 😀 that’s it!
2) If you decide to read these future posts… you might get very disappointed at finding out that most of the times the high-brand and expensive cosmetics have almost no difference (price excluded 😀 ) from the cheap ones. This might break your heart. So these posts will be only for the BRAVE ONES! 😀 😀 😀

This said… I go now!
I have to see from where on earth I can start talking about this huuuuge topic 😀
My brain is already melting 😀

Do you think this will be useful to you? 😀
Any suggestion?

Ghassoul Shampoo DIY

Hello there! 😀
I have an amazing recipe today 😀

This is a recipe for a muddy-looking shampoo but with an amazing feel! I have been using it for a month now and I am perfectly satisfied with it! Really, I think it is the best recipe of a shampoo I have done so far! 😀
Look how cute! 😀

GhassoulShampooDIY

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Lactobionic Acid Cream DIY

Hello there!
This is a recipe for an amazing cream (I have used it for few months now, so I edited the beginning of this article) 🙂

Lactobionic Cream 10

[If this is the first time you read on this website, here are many articles about how to make REAL creams at home. Learn a little bit of theory and this page will start making sense too 😀 GO HERE you won’t be sorry! ]

This cream has a quite consistent oil phase (or Phase B) because I needed it for winter, however (after one month of trial) I don’t think it is enough greasy for people with dry skin or who live in very cold countries (I find myself in Finland at the moment and at -20°C my skin was still dry 😀 ).
For this cream I tried to formulate a different grease-fall compared to what I usually make because, even though I have a quite oily skin, I have found out that low-density oils appear on my skin much more easily than more heavy ones: that’s because the lower the density of an oil, the higher the spreading ability. So that’s it, I tried adding more butters than I normally do and I must say my skin liked it, even though I am still not totally satisfied with the feel of this cream and I will definitely have to experiment much more before I find the “perfect grease-fall”.

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