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..

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 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 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 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 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 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..

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 ..

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 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..

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 ..

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..

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 - 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..

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..

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 is slugging?

Over the years, we have covered a few K-beauty trends. The recent one making the rounds is slugging. For a while, it was/is a favourite of Reddit forums, but now slugging is gaining traction after going viral on TikTok. Plenty of skincare trends from Pinterest and TikTok mak..

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..

How to Adapt Your Skincare Routine in Your 30s

Can we agree our 20s are a messy time? It is easy to get away with a lot. Like being out all night clubbing and drinking, then going for a lecture first thing in the morning. A hangover isn't even a blip on the radar. Our 30s, however, are much better. We care less what any..

7 Cardinal Sins of Skincare

Look, there is no point in beating round the bush. We can absolutely agree we were young and foolish once, right? We'll go with being young and foolish to explain some of the cardinal skincare sins below. No sunscreen By now we know that sun causes skin cancer. However, ..

What Are Milia and How to Treat Them?

At a glance, they might look like whiteheads. But they are definitely not. Milia can affect just about anyone, and it can be difficult to get rid of. What are milia? A milium is a small, white, hard bump that happens when keratin and dead skin cells get trapped underneat..

Under Eye Circles and Under Eye Bags - The Causes and How to Treat Them Effectively

Eyes are the mirror of the soul. Unfortunately, often times eyes are the first to show the signs of aging. Or anything that might be going on in our lives like stress, medical conditions, or having a crisp too many the night before. But we need to differentiate between under..

Exfoliating Acids Explained

To the uninitiated exfoliating acids can sound scary. Acids? On our face? But like a pH balanced cleanser, they can transform your routine and skin. Oily, combination, acne-prone, dull, aging, dry, sensitive, no matter the condition of your skin, it can benefit from some gen..

Mandelic Acid

Mandelic Acid is an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) extracted from bitter almond. It has a long, safe history of use in medicine as an oral antibiotic, but has only recently become popular in skincare. Its use in skincare was pioneered by Dr Fulton, one of the researchers who devel..

What are skin-replenishing ingredients?

For healthy, bouncy, plump skin, your skincare routine needs skin-replenishing ingredients. The good news is chances are you probably already have a few products in your lineup that fit the bill. What are skin-replenishing ingredients? How do they benefit the skin? What do ..

How to get brighter skin

Colder months can be harsh on the skin. Coupled with the second lockdown and being stuck indoors for the foreseeable, it is easy to understand why our skin might appear dull and lacklustre. And nobody wants to look like a sallow, ashy, grey-ish mess. Let us focus on what we ..

Ingredient Highlight - Niacinamide

Retinol, AHAs, and vitamin C make the cornerstone of any decent skincare routine. Niacinamide is one ingredient that any skincare lover in the know should incorporate into their routine regardless of their skin type. What is niacinamide? Niacinamide is also known as vita..

How to Care for Combination Skin

Skincare should not be complicated. 10-step routine is lovely and indulgent. Is it necessary? No. Most of the time if you cleanse, treat and moisturise, that should be enough. However, for a majority of us, things tend to get complicated. Dry skin and hyperpigmentation, acne..

Understanding the Skin: An Introduction

What are cosmetics? And what can they be expected to do? To answer these questions we first need to understand the structure and function of the skin. It is perhaps surprising to remember that the skin is an organ. The skin is the visible surface of our bodies, the tangible ..

Hyaluronic Acid Explained

Spring will arrive at some point. Until then, one thing we should all do regardless of our skin type is hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. One ingredient that can make all the difference? Hyaluronic acid. What is Hyaluronic acid? When someone mentions acids, the first associatio..

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