The Journal of Intelligent Skincare.

Why does my face feel tight after washing?

Because the outermost layer of your skin is drying and contracting around less water than it held ten minutes ago. The feeling is mechanical rather than moral, and it is useful: how long it lasts t...

Can you use peptides and vitamin C together?

Yes, in almost every case. The one real exception involves an ingredient most ranges do not contain, and the warning you have read was written about that exception rather than about peptides in gen...

Why has my vitamin C serum turned orange?

A clear serum goes straw, then amber, then closer to weak tea. It is one of the most common complaints in Australian vitamin C reviews, and almost nobody selling vitamin C will explain it. Here is ...

What is the difference between a serum and a moisturiser?

A serum is built to deliver. A moisturiser is built to hold. The difference is not strength: it is whether the formula carries an oil and wax phase, because that phase is the only part of either pr...

Why does my skincare pill, and how to stop it

Pilling is the small grey rolls that gather under your fingers as you work in the last layer of a routine. It is almost never a bad product, and almost never your skin shedding. It is a film distur...

Does mango butter darken skin?

No. Mango seed butter has no effect on the way skin makes pigment, and it carries none of the compounds behind plant related light sensitivity. Where the worry comes from, why some butters leave a ...

What is the difference between mango, shea, cocoa and kokum butter?

Four plant butters, one variable that decides how they feel. Kokum, cocoa, shea and mango compared on hardness, scent and finish.

Is mango butter good for hair?

Mango butter is an emollient. It smooths the look of the cuticle, adds slip and softens dry lengths. It does not make hair grow. How it compares to shea butter, and how to use it without a greasy f...

Can you use vitamin C and niacinamide together?

Yes. The idea that they cancel each other out comes from 1960s laboratory work done under heat, not from anything that happens on skin. The pH detail that actually matters, the right order, and why...

Can you use vitamin C and retinol together?

Yes. They do not cancel each other out, and the idea that they do began in a beaker rather than on skin. What they share is a direction of travel, which is why the sensible version separates them b...