Chemistry of your hair: The hair strand – the cuticle (updated 2023)

The cuticle is the part of the hair that probably concerns us the most on a day to day basis. When our hair emerges from our scalp, it has about 6 to 10 layers of cuticle about 50 micrometres on a side and about 0.5 micrometres thick. The cuticle is attached to the cortex and...

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When lotions go wrong! (Updated 2023)

Original post shared 2009. Slowly updating it for 2023 with new information and diagrams. This is definitely a work in progress as there’s so much more to share!  At one time or another, we’ve all experienced epic lotion failure and asked ourselves what we did wrong. We call it separation, but do you know why...

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Emollients you will love: Babassu oil (INCI Orbygnia Oleifera (Babassu) Seed Oil) – updated October 2022

If you’ve spent any time on the blog, you’ll know how much I love love babassu oil! Let’s take a look at this gorgeous solid oil! Yes, babassu oil (INCI Orbygnia Oleifera (Babassu) Seed Oil) is a semi-solid, white oil that’s solid at room temperature, but melts at 24˚C (76˚F), which which means it will...

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Emollients you will love: Cranberry seed oil (updated December 28, 2021)

Cranberry oil – INCI: Vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberry) seed oil – is an interesting oil. With 3 to 6% palmitic acid (C16), up to 2% stearic acid (C18), 22 to 26% oleic acid (C18:1), 30 to 38% linoleic acid (C18:2), and 20 to 38% linolenic acid (C18:3), you’d expect it to have a short shelf life...

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#alltheingredients: Ethylhexyl palmitate – Guerbet ester, low viscosity dimethicone substitute

You can find the home page for the Guerbet ester series by clicking this link! I’ll update it every time we meet a new ester! I’ll be referring quite a lot to the the combining emollients series in which we learned how properties like viscosity, surface tension, saturation, molecule size, molecule weight, molecule shape, polarity, and...

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