My Dad the Chemist

No matter how well you formulate a mineral sunscreen, it’s bound to leave some sort of white cast on your skin. In my experience, the only remedy for this problem is to (a) own the ghostly look with confidence; (b) opt for a chemical sunscreen; or (c) cover it up with makeup or, better yet, for those of us who don’t know how to use makeup…try out a tinted mineral sunscreen! Tinted sunscreens usually contain iron oxides to help counteract the ghostliness of zinc oxide. So you…

Mineral sunscreen, conditioner, and hand lotion are the top three types of products I buy all the time. I’m pretty loyal to a product once I find a version I like, but I’m not afraid to try other brands every now and then just to see if something better has appeared on the horizon. Conditioner is a particularly tricky one because I find that my hair’s needs depend on the environment. When I lived in NYC, I didn’t really need any special conditioner to detangle my hair.…

The water in my apartment is so hard that it leaves mineral deposits on my sink and bathtub—and it’s also the bane of my hair’s existence. It makes my hair feel dull and oily, no matter how often I wash it. I recently bought a bottle of CLR cleaner and it’s been a game changer. But unfortunately, solving the problem for my hair is a more complicated matter. After all, I can’t just spray some CLR cleaner on my hair and call it a day. I never realized how good I had it back…