Are high quality cosmetic ingredients a thing? #203

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 scientists answer your beauty questions and give you an insider's look at the beauty product industry. This is episode 203 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and joining me today is the better looking co-host of The Beauty Brains, Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:31)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:34)

Hey, you know, Valerie, on today's episode, we're gonna be answering some beauty questions about the quality of ingredients versus the price of the product. Whether the Curly Girl method really requires you to avoid parabens and why it does.

What it's like to work in the cosmetic industry and how you get started, and whether you have to wait to apply vitamin C in your skincare products. But first, Valerie, it was so good to see you last week. We were both in New York.

Valerie George (1:03)

It was great to see you too. We only get to see each other a couple times a year, and I always look forward to those occasions.

Perry Romanowski (1:09)

Yeah, it was a good time. It had some nice weather there. It was a good show. Actually, my favorite part was getting to do the Insta story. I don't know how many people saw that Insta story.

Really, if you did, it's a treat, because no one else is gonna see it.

Valerie George (1:26)

Oh, come on now. So for those of you guys who missed out, Perry and I were in together in New York City last week for this National Society of Cosmetic Chemists annual scientific meeting. So this meeting has dozens of speakers coming from all over the world to speak about the latest research in cosmetic science and thousands of cosmetic chemists, well, maybe like thousand plus, to send upon Manhattan to listen to all of these talks. And it's really great because you have science, of course you have fun, there's a couple of parties going on.

And then I got to see Perry, and we recorded our first ever Instagram Live together, but Perry's first Instagram Live ever.

Perry Romanowski (2:06)

Yeah, I didn't even know what it was, but it was very cool.

Valerie George (2:10)

And like a bozo, I forgot to save it after we were done recording. So I'm really sorry about that, but I'll learn moving forward.

Perry Romanowski (2:20)

Yeah, you know, it's technology.

You know, that isn't the first episode of The Beauty Brains that didn't get captured. Remember, I think we recorded one in March, which didn't get captured.

Valerie George (2:33)

Yeah, that was awful. I think I was in Germany when that happened. Yeah, well, you know, it's all for nothing.

Perry Romanowski (2:39)

It's technology. It's not for nothing. We learn something now for the next time, right?

Valerie George (2:43)

Yeah. So what was your favorite part about the show?

Perry Romanowski (2:46)

Well, like I said, I very much enjoyed doing the Instagram story with you. But as far as the show goes, yeah, there were some really cool stuff. I particularly liked Tim Caulfield's talk. His keynote speech was just really great, and it covered a lot. It's like preaching to the choir, though, covering a lot of things about skepticism and some of the crazy things that celebrities plug.

It really went well.

I also liked some of the talks. There was, well, it was a mixed bag. There was that whole section on CBD where there was some interesting science presented, which I just kept thinking, oh, well, that's a drug claim. That's a drug claim. You can't do it in cosmetics. And then finally, there was a lawyer who essentially got up there and said exactly that, and she was really spunky and feisty. And I thought she was a good speaker.

Valerie George (3:37)

Yeah, I'd like her to represent me in a court of law.

Yeah, so for those of you guys who don't know, I was the chair of the committee that picked all the speakers to speak at the event this year. So I had a little insight to the program that we put together. It's my last year on the committee. I had a great time. I represented hair in the Hair Color Faction. So of course, I enjoyed the talk on hair that we had, but one of my favorite talks, aside from the spunky lawyer in CBD, was a gentleman named Lex Pelger from CV Sciences.

He actually was really good speaking about just studies that had been done about CBD and skin being the largest organ on the body and any toxicity studies. To me, it was interesting. People really preach about the benefits of CBD, but everything has a dose where it can be not good for you. So some of the work he's done has explored that. So it was pretty interesting.