How to switch your skincare routine for autumn

The days are getting shorter and colder (thank heavens!), it is time to get cosy. It is also time to switch up your skincare routine to adjust to the change of season. What are some of the most common skin concerns during this transitional period? The change in temperature a..

How to Treat Post-Holiday Skin

Holidays can be a mixed bag. For some people, it can be a stressful period with the travel and fraught family reunions that would test the patience of a saint. For others, it is a magical time of the year what with Christmas decorations everywhere, parties, and never-ending ..

How to beat winter skin

Any season is better than summer. But the fact remains, wintertime can exceptionally harsh on the skin. How should you treat winter skin? What are some of the common mistakes we make, and how to fix them? Skincare routine Cold air, wind, central heating that dries the beje..

How to prevent skincare pilling

For many of us, doing our skincare routine is a happy place. A Zen moment to ourselves. A chance to take a breath and pamper our skin. Or it should be until you experience something called skincare pilling. Plenty of us have experienced it at least once. We do our skincare r..

How to Treat Your Skin in Menopause

Hormonal changes affect our skin. It is blatantly apparent when we are teenagers. But menopause is no picnic either. It can bring about increased dryness, sensitivity, and, in some cases, even acne. Give your skin some comfort and tackle the changes head-on with some simple ..

How to use retinol in the summer?

The skincare community will hotly debate any number of topics. Do you need a moisturiser? Are eye creams effective? How many times per week should you exfoliate? But one ingredient we can all agree on is retinol. It is a powerful ingredient with numerous studies that prove i..

How to know if you are overwashing your face

Cleansers give us joy! Simple as. Oils, balms, gels, the difference in textures, the scent, the ritual of washing off daily dirt and grime - cleansing your face can be awesome. Cleansing is the first and crucial step in keeping our skin healthy, bouncy, and plump. But someti..

Ingredient Highligh - Humectants

Healthy skin needs to be hydrated properly. Yes, regardless of the skin type. Humectants are ingredients that work well for all skin types. Oily skin gets the hydration it needs, without any of the oiliness. Dry and dehydrated benefits too, for obvious reasons. What are hume..

Cosmetic Ingredients A-Z and Their Properties

We're passionate about the ingredients that make up your favorite skincare products. From A-Z, each ingredient has been carefully chosen for its unique benefits to the skin, ranging from hydrating and soothing properties to anti-aging and brightening effects. Whether it?s th..

Ingredient highlight - amino acids

Amino acids might not be on your skincare radar. However, due to their nature, they are critical for our skin health. What are amino acids, and how do they benefit the skin? Should you include them in your routine? What are amino acids? Considered the building blocks in ou..

Ingredient Highlight - Emollients

Come wintertime, one category of ingredients that gets talked about a lot in the skincare community is emollients. It is easy to understand why. Due to cold weather and change in temperature, the majority of us deal with dry or dehydrated skin. It is not a life-threatening c..

Ingredient Highlight - Bisabolol

Bisabolol is an ingredient you might have heard of, or even come across on the inci list, but never really paid much attention to. The fact of the matter is, we might not talk about it to the same extent as we do about retinol or Alpha-Hydroxy acids. But it does have plenty ..

Ingredient Highlight - Lipo-hydroxy acid

What is Lipo-hydroxy acid? Lipo-hydroxy acid is an ester of Salicylic acid. Where it differentiates from Salicylic acid is it has a higher molecular weight. Because of this, it slower to penetrate the skin and better tolerated. It is a lipophilic acid meaning it dissolves i..

Ingredient Highlight - Squalane

Want smooth, soft, well-hydrated skin? Give Squalane a try! Chances are a few of the products in your skincare stash contain Squalane. It is a popular ingredient, and for a good reason. It is super hydrating, but what is even more important, it is well tolerated by ALL skin ..

C60 Fullerene - The new super star ingredient for your skincare routine

The beauty industry is constantly evolving, and new skincare products are hitting the market every day. One of the latest buzzwords in the world of skincare is C60 fullerene. This molecule has been dubbed as the "superstar of your skincare routine," with many people swearing..

Ingredient Highlight - Azelaic Acid

Ask any skincare nerd about their favourite ingredient and be prepared to listen about the virtues of retinol/vitamin C/AHAs and what a difference it made to their skin (we are guilty of that, too). But if you have blemish-prone sensitive skin or suffer from rosacea, it can ..

The Evolution of Vitamin C in Skincare: A Fascinating Fusion of Science and History

Skincare regimens have always been an integral part of human personal care, dating back centuries. Among the numerous compounds discovered and employed for skincare, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has emerged as an extraordinary ingredient due to its multifaceted benefits. Its jo..

How to Know if You Overexfoliated Your Skin

Sometimes enthusiasm gets the better of us. It is easy (so easy!) to get carried away when it comes to skincare. You find the right cleanser and moisturizer. A million YouTube videos and blog posts later and you realize your routine is missing a whole bunch of things. Yo..

Why our skincare routines matter

In case anyone hasn't asked you in a while - how are you? We are over a year into the pandemic. 2020 was a lot (A LOT) in every imaginable way. Last year what we were experiencing was grief. Over the last few months, some of us experienced something called languishing (yes, ..

How to Treat Body Acne

Body acne can affect you regardless of your age or gender. The cause of body acne is the same as face acne - excess oil production, dead skin cells in the follicles, and bacteria. The oil and dead skin cells block the pore; bacteria thrive, and you get acne. Body acne is an..

Reasons to Love Aloe Vera

Are you an ingredient snob? It is ok if you are, we are the same. It is easy to get excited about peptides, actives, liposomes and all the latest ingredients coming out of cosmetics labs. But what about good old Aloe Vera? You might think to yourself, Aloe Vera? It has been ..

Heat-Induced Sensitivity - How to Ease the Symptoms

Sensitive skin is a blanket term most of us use without much thought, but it is not a diagnosis per se. It signifies various things to different people. For some it might represent breakouts, others might experience extreme dryness. Or it could be a reaction to an ingredient..

Using an acid treatment has made my skin dry and crinkly. What should I do?

Q. I have been applying mandelic acid 15% every other day for a week. I have noticed my skin has gone kind of crinkly and dry but moisturiser doesn't seem to help. What should I do? A. Don't worry, this is a common problem for people using treatment strength alpha hydroxy a..

The lowdown on acids

Any skincare-nerd-in-training will tell you - one of the first things we all get fixated on is the need to exfoliate our skin. That is after we get over the fact you do it with acids (say what?) Chemical exfoliation is a fab thing for almost all skin types and issues. Acids ..

How to Patch Test?

Do you patch test new skincare products? Or do you just slap on your new toner/serum/moisturizer and hope for the best? The impulse to try out new products is strong. We get it, we do. If your skin is non-reactive and tolerates new products well, we are officially jealous. ..

What is Preventative Anti-Aging?

If we are fortunate, we'll get old. Aging is a natural process, and yes, it's a privilege. That said, who doesn't like having healthy-looking skin, regardless of their age? Some might consider it vain. To that, we say whatever. Having nice skin can make us feel better about..

What causes sagging skin and can you treat it?

We said it once, we'll say it again. Getting old is a privilege. That said, sagging skin can be a bugbear for many of us. Is there a way to un-sag (we are aware it's not even a word) the skin? And what can you do to prevent it? The reasons why skin starts to sag As we get ..

Five Lesser Known Oils You Need to Know

At Ishtar we are big fans of facial oils. Contrary to popular opinion, there are facial oils suitable for every skin type (including oily skin). Our line has two wonderful oils in case you want to try them out (just saying). Today we investigate five lesser known oils and th..

Ishtar's Serums at a Glance

Any skincare expert will tell you - invest your money in a treatment serum. That said, an effective serum doesn't have to cost a ton. To make your search easier, down below you can find the list of Ishtar's treatment serums. While we love our botanical extracts (after all, o..

Can I layer my retinol cream with another moisturiser?

Q. Can I layer a moisturiser over my retinol product? I find my skin needs extra moisture during winter. A. Absolutely. It is perfectly fine to layer a moisturising cream over your retinol serum or lotion. Recent research has shown that retinol is much more than a s..

How to Pick A Cleanser for Your Skin Type

Healthy skin starts with the right cleanser. A good cleanser keeps your skin clean, comfortable, and balanced and preps it for all the other steps in your skincare routine. The uppermost part of the epidermis is called Stratum Corneum. The top part of Stratum Corneum is cal..

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