Hi, my name is Tassos and I am the creator of this blog. I am a media studies graduate and I have lived for years in London, where I worked as an interpreter in hospitals and GP practices and specialized in medical terminology.

I developed an interest in skincare in 2006, when I was 29. Baking in the sun hadn’t cured my psoriasis or made me look healthier, but it did give me the gift of sunspots. Oh, and applying salted lemon juice on my forehead hadn’t eliminated acne, surprise surprise! What I learned quickly is that the key to the effectiveness of a product lies in its ingredients. Over the next few years, I read so many articles and scientific studies that I came to the point where I could decipher the ingredient list of any product. My passion for research that drove me to study journalism wasn’t lying dormant as I previously thought; It had been channeled into skincare!

Nowadays there‘s loads of great products on the market, so it’s a shame that the frequent lack of accurate and unbiased information prevents many of us from making the right choices. So I decided to put my knowledge to positive use and create this blog.  

Scientific evidence will take center stage in my posts because it’s usually a reliable source of information. However, I do believe that anecdotal evidence has value and I want to include it in my research too. And I do wish to share my own opinion, but I don’t want to impose my views on you. What really matters to me is to help you form your own well-informed opinions. For that to happen, there needs to be a clear distinction between the above-mentioned sources of information. That’s why most posts on ingredients will be divided in three main sections: Scientific research, reviews on Reddit and/or Makeupalley from people who use products with these ingredients and my own verdict.

The scientific research section will often be a lengthy one because I aim to cover as many studies as possible. For those who don’t need to know all the details, I will use bold text to highlight the most important bits. And I will always try to find out who funded each study. Research bias is much more common than we think, since many studies are funded by cosmetics companies.

Please don’t hesitate to share your views, experiences and questions in the comments section. Your opinion counts!