#sulphate

Feeling clean and green🌱  

Happy Tuesday everyone! This week is a different one for me as I’m on holiday in Llangollen at the moment, so I’m really enjoying being able to spend time with my family especially after being kept apart a lot over the last 18 months! A product I’ve brought along with me on my travels is the Herbal Essences Potent Aloe + Hemp shampoo, which I’ve been using for over a month now and just can’t get enough of. 

Now I know hemp has been a bit of a trending beauty ingredient over the last few years, and this is no exception in the haircare world. It’s meant to be great at nourishing, repairing and hydrating sad strands, which is always a tremendous tool to have in your arsenal when warmer weather comes by. As a curly girl, it’s important for me to use products that can tackle frizz, infuse moisture and protect my lengths from breakage, all without weighing down my fine hair. 

That’s where this shampoo comes in. There are no sulphates or silicones in this formula which is fundamental for me, but you’d never guess it with the lather it produces. Suds, suds everywhere! I honestly think it lathers better than any other shampoo I’ve come across so far - sulphates or otherwise. This means you can use the smallest amount to cleanse your whole head, meaning the bottle will last you forever and a day. And at £6.00 a pop for 380ml, this beauty is truly wonderful on your wallet. 

I find this shampoo does a lovely job at thoroughly cleaning my hair without causing product build-up, all while making my hair soft, manageable and ready for the next steps in my haircare routine. The fact that it’s affordable and cruelty-free with the feeling of a more expensive shampoo just means that I have to take it with me wherever I go 🚗  

Anglesite

When dull silvery grey galena (seehttp://bit.ly/1IrEREY) in a lead deposit is oxidised (see http://bit.ly/1I4XWKt) by percolating ground waters, this sulphate is one common result. As well as these beautiful prismatic crystals it also forms aggregates and crusts, usually ranging from white, light blue or colourless to varying degrees of yellow or brown if iron oxides are also present. Like most lead minerals it is very dense, being composed of 74% by mass of the saturnine metal. It was named in 1832 after the isle of Anglesey off the North Welsh coast where it was first discovered in a copper mine in 1783. There are over 200 known crystal shapes, so Anglesite joins Calcite as one of the most varied crystal formers.

Despite its low hardness (a mere 2.5 on Mohs scale) colourful transparent material is sometimes faceted for collectors, sometimes with inclusions of galena within. Other localities producing nice specimens include England, Scotland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Sardinia, Russia, Tunisia, Namibia (the Tsumeb mine, see http://bit.ly/1c2CjkD), the United States, Mexico, and Australia.

Loz

Image credit: MIM Museum http://mim.museum/home

337 Baryte / Barite on matrix from UK

Anglesite

When dull silvery grey galena (see http://bit.ly/1IrEREY) in a lead deposit is oxidised (see http://bit.ly/1I4XWKt) by percolating ground waters, this sulphate is one common result. As well as these beautiful prismatic crystals it also forms aggregates and crusts, usually ranging from white, light blue or colourless to varying degrees of yellow or brown if iron oxides are also present. Like most lead minerals it is very dense, being composed of 74% by mass of the saturnine metal. It was named in 1832 after the isle of Anglesey off the North Welsh coast where it was first discovered in a copper mine in 1783. There are over 200 known crystal shapes, so Anglesite joins Calcite as one of the most varied crystal formers.

Despite its low hardness (a mere 2.5 on Mohs scale) colourful transparent material is sometimes faceted for collectors, sometimes with inclusions of galena within. Other localities producing nice specimens include England, Scotland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Sardinia, Russia, Tunisia, Namibia (the Tsumeb mine, see http://bit.ly/1c2CjkD), the United States, Mexico, and Australia. The 3.2 x 2.5 x 2.3 cm beauty in the photos comes from the Touissit Mine in Morocco.

Loz