Chemistry

I mentioned silicones in the post on occlusives and if you’ve read any of my hair care posts, I consider dimethicone to be a major part of my anti-frizz routine, but dimethicone is great for body care products as well. What is dimethicone? Dimethicone is a non-volatile oil soluble silicone you can add to your...

I love allantoin in my creations! It’s great for an apres sun spray (add at 0.5%) or a toner (at 0.5% to 1%). It’s perfect in hand lotions – especially now with all the hand washing we’re doing to keep pandemics at bay – and excellent in facial moisturizers! You can make a beautiful spray...

Allantoin is great in mineral make-up products meant for your face, like blushes, foundations, and finishing powders. Let’s adapt our finishing powder to include some allantoin… FINISHING POWDER (by volume, not weight) 3 tbsp treated serecite 1 tsp micronospheres 1/5 tsp or 6 scoops calcium carbonate or kaolin clay (for oil control, optional) 1/5 tsp...

I touched on allantoin a little in the occlusion post…click here to find out about more occlusives! Allantoin, also called 5-ureidohydantoin or glyoxyldiureide, is a fantastic skin protectant that softens skin (it’s a keratolytic, meaning it causes the keratin to soften), causes rapid cell regeneration and proliferation, and is approved by the FDA to temporarily...

It’s hard to make generalizations about silk as you can get so many different kinds – liquid, powder, low molecular weight, high molecular weight, and so on. The molecular weight is important because the lower the molecular weight, the more likely the protein will actually penetrate the skin and hair and act as a humectant...