Are Copper Peptides Better Than Retinol? Episode 424

Perry Romanowski (0:00)

Hi, I'm Perry, and you're listening to The Beauty Brains.

Welcome to The Beauty Brains, a show where real cosmetic chemists answer your beauty product questions and give you an insider's look at the cosmetic industry. This is episode 424 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:29)

Hi, Perry. Guess what? Episode 424 is a palindrome, and I beat you to it.

Perry Romanowski (0:35)

Oh, you did? Oh, that's very good.

Valerie George (0:37)

I've been waiting all week to say that.

Perry Romanowski (0:40)

You know, Valerie, not everybody is enthralled with palindromes as me. I was playing cards with a girl last weekend in this card tournament I was in, and her name was Anna, A-N-N-A. And I was like, hey, that's a palindrome. And she goes, what's a palindrome?

Valerie George (0:55)

Oh my goodness, that's so embarrassing.

Perry Romanowski (0:57)

These young kids these days. But we'll be answering questions like that on today's show, and we'll also be answering questions, including what's the difference between Cetaphil and Amlactin?

How do you know if a sunscreen is delivering on the SPF that they claim? Are copper peptides better than retinol? How do you stay smoother longer after shaving? And can extreme heat or cold affect the performance of a beauty product? But first, let's talk about you and I and not seeing each other. It's been a little while since the last time I saw you were in Europe.

Valerie George (1:31)

I was. I went to Germany to visit some family, a little R&R, and then I went to a trade show called In Cosmetics Global. This year, it was in Paris. Next year, it'll be in Barcelona, but it's a busy time of year. I feel like March, April and May are so hectic with travel in the beauty industry because you have all these shows you have to be at, different meetings, like Make Up in LA, the American Oil Chemistry Convention, Suppliers Day in New York, which you might be at.

It's a hectic time of year.

Perry Romanowski (2:02)

It is a hectic time of year. But speaking of in cosmetics, so how was the show this year?

Valerie George (2:08)

It was really good. It was so big.

And I honestly couldn't get to everything. I felt like it was a little bit bigger than years prior. And I had many meetings, schedule learning about new technologies and all the things for different projects that I have. Even if I'm just curious about a new technology that's being developed. But I'm not too sad because everything that launches at InCause comes to New York Suppliers Day. And I'll also be going to that because I'm teaching a course. And so I'll also attend the trade show. But yeah, really great show. Lots of new technologies on the horizon. There was one technology in particular. There's a company, they always try to find the most insane ingredient sourcing stories. And for example, we went to the bottom of the ocean where this came from Mars.

Perry Romanowski (2:56)

So the Marianas Trencia ingredients?

Valerie George (2:59)

I don't know. So they had all these fluorescent wasp spiders all over their booth. And essentially, the wasp spider creates this peptide. And they were able to, using recombinant technology or whatever it's called, eventually figure out what this peptide sequence was and then recreate it synthetically for different anti-aging benefits. And I just got stung by a wasp in the back of the neck a few weeks ago at work. And so I don't like the word wasp. And I also don't like spiders. And so for me, I was like, I'm sure the technology is really cool.

I mean, it's not for me.

Perry Romanowski (3:38)

The question is, where you got stung, is it smooth and wrinkle free?

Valerie George (3:45)

Well, I don't know, because it was nestled under my low bun. Oh, yeah, it's no longer called a rat's nest. It's called a wasp's nest.

Perry Romanowski (3:54)

Oh, well, there you go. Hey, you know what I did since the last time I talked to you?

I took in a family of a mother and five kittens.

Valerie George (4:04)

Oh, like you're fostering them or they came from the street?

Perry Romanowski (4:07)

We are fostering them, yeah.

Valerie George (4:09)

Oh, how cool. How does Heatmizer feel?

Perry Romanowski (4:12)

The outdoor cats are not big fans of them, but mostly because the mama cat, she's like a little tuxedo cat. She's a tuxedo cat. She has three tuxedo kittens, one calico kitten and one all black kitten.

Valerie George (4:27)

I wish we could have more cats. Oh, they sound so cute.