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Comments by a Chemist

Skin Science

November 24, 2022

Your skin surface lipids contain a mixture of those found in your lipid matrix (ceramides, cholesterol, fatty acids), as well as those found in the sebum (oil) produced from your sebaceous glands (oil glands). Sebum is mostly made up of triglycerides (30-60%), wax esters (20-30%), free fatty acids (10-30%), and squalene (10-20%). Squalene and wax esters, in particular, are unique to your sebum and are not found anywhere else in your body. Each play a slightly different role within your sebum: Squalene and wax esters create a protective barrier on the surface of your skin to seal in moisture and

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Ingredient in Focus: Behentrimonium Chloride

November 24, 2022

Understanding the hair allows us to understand key ingredient to use to help support. Watch this cool video (from a white man with no curly hair haha) for a short understanding of WHAT MAKES CURLY HAIR CURLY. And why Curly hairs needs are different! Conditioning thick curly and frizzy hair can be quite challenging as you want to ensure you have ample power for comb-through but not too much for residue! Curly hair need extra TLC because as the video shows, natural oils find it hard to move down the hair. Choosing key ingredients that have an affinity to hair

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Allowable Cosmetic Ingredients

November 24, 2022

What is allowed in the Cosmetic Industry? Examples: Phenoxyethanol is in Schedule 6 and cannot be used at more than 1% in a cosmetic. Bitter orange oil is in Schedule 5 and is considered a cosmetic when used in soaps or bath or shower gels that are washed off the skin, when used at 1.4% or less, or in other preparations when labelled with “application to the skin may increase sensitivity to sunlight”.

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Business Relationships

November 22, 2022

Ok you have your product sorted; you have your packaging on point; you have your supply chain sorted; and you have stock into Retail stores, well done!!! Now for the tricky part you have done all the hard work. But how do you get the product off the shelf into the consumers hands so that the Retailer needs to re-order, re-order and re-order? As the beauty market has become ever more crowded and competitive, just being carried by a major retailer is no longer a guarantee for success. Increasingly brands have to compete even within a retailer for attention and

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Microbiome, Gut Health and Brain-Gut Axis

November 1, 2022

There are many studies not only about Microbiome but about gut health and the Brain-Gut Axis. About Prebiotics, Probiotics. Postbiotics and now Synbiotics. Lets take a look at what these are, how they affect us and why they are important to us. Microbiome  Refers to the group of microbes, or 1,000 bacterial species, that live in your body. This bacteria helps with digestion, destroys harmful bacteria and helps control your immune system. Prebiotics  Are nutrients mainly fibers and natural sugars that stimulate the good bacteria in the gut. Prebiotics help beneficial bacteria grow in the gut. This allows your gut

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Regulatory Update – NSW Plastics Ban (1 November 2022)

November 1, 2022

The NSW Government’s ban on certain single-use plastic items comes into effect on 1 November 2022. The NSW single-use plastic ban will prevent almost 2.7 billion items of plastic litter from entering the environment in NSW over the next 20 years. What’s banned from 1 November This follows the ban on lightweight plastic bags with handles (35 microns or less) from 1 June this year. Get savvy about banned items and their alternatives with our photo galleries. Campaign launched “Let’s Stop it and Swap it” Shocking images of plastic pollution in the ocean and a turtle choking on a plastic

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