Hello everyone!
Long time no see 😀
I have kept formulating all this time, but there wasn’t much new to write about since I tend to go back to the ingredients I know and love…
However TODAY, ladies and gentlemen, I am posting THE FORMULA, the one I have been running after all these years!
I have
1) a new emulsifier, which I instantly fell in love with
2) a new procedure!
and clearly a 3) NEW cream sensation! 😀
Continue reading Smooth Away Face Cream
“Hello Everyone!
Today I have for you the formula of a super hydrating serum! It is simple to make, it contains ingredients that are rather easy to find and it is highly performing!
Where I live we have had over 40°C and so I decided to formulate something that would behave well if stored in the fridge (before you start having heart-shaped-sparkling eyes: you still need to add the preservative. Repeat with me: THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM PRESERVATIVES! 😀 good, now you can continue reading). One of the cosmetics I always store in the fridge is the basic Hyaluronic Acid Gel (you can find the recipe HERE), so I have simply “upgraded” the formula to make it more performing (I have already posted two recipes for two upgraded versions of the Hyaluronic Acid Gel, you can find them Here and Here).
Hello there! 🙂
Today I want to talk about SILICONES because I found there is so much mis-knowledge about them online and I felt I need to clear their reputation a little. 🙂
Obviously everybody is entitled to have their own opinion… BUT, to have a real opinion, one is supposed to have a real notion of what they are talking about 😉 so here I try to sum up some facts that might have created confusion.
Hello there! 😀
This is finally the last chapter of our “Recognizing a good Shampoo” topic.
We have learnt the basics of shampoo surfactants in the part 1 and part 2Â and in the last post (which you can find here) we talked about the most common “extra ingredients”.
I know I haven’t covered all the possible things but I did what I could 😀
Today I just want to briefly talk about those “useful” ingredients which we find in our shampoos, meaning those ingredients which should (at least theoretically) make a difference! 😉
– Panthenol – It derives from Vitamin B5. A famous shampoo brand made a huge campaign on their shampoos because they contain this vitamin. Yes, it is supposed to have good effect on hair and scalp, it is an humectant and it helps retain the water. It also creates a light “film” on the hair protecting them from damage.Â
However, in a product like a shampoo, which we wash off after few seconds from having applied it, it might not be that effective and therefore if you find it in a shampoo it is very probably in minimal amount, just to look good in the ingredient’s list. 😉
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! 😉
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! 😀
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”)Â 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.
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!
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) 😀
It's all in my hands 