Beauty Dupes, Shampoo Truths, & becoming a Cosmetic Chemist - episode 420

Perry Romanowski (0:00)

Hi, I'm Perry and you're listening to The Beauty Brains. Hello, and 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 420 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:28)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:30)

Valerie, it's been a little while. I'm glad to be back. And on today's show, we've got a ton of questions, so let's see what we're covering today. On the show today, we're gonna cover what is nonanol odor and how do you minimize it? Does panthenol make a shampoo better? What's an alternative to Matrix Step One Bleach Amplifier? How expensive is it to test a product? How do you become a cosmetic chemist? And Valerie, we've been off a little while, and that's mainly because I guess I was traveling and you too, I suppose.

Valerie George (1:01)

Well, I would say the primary offender in this instance, and if you're a Beauty Brains listener and you're upset, please be upset with Perry. Because, yes, I was traveling a tiny bit, but I'm talking a couple days here and there. But it turns out the one or two days I was traveling is the only time that Perry was not traveling.

Perry Romanowski (1:20)

Yeah. Well, you know, I was on sublontar. I was in India for us. So that was that made things a little challenging because I guess we were like 13 hours different.

Valerie George (1:31)

We were 14 and a half hours different. Why the half hour?

Perry Romanowski (1:36)

It's interesting they do a half because they didn't want to do two time zones for the whole country. So they just and it really should have two. So they split the difference in one and a half.

Valerie George (1:46)

Yeah. Yeah, that makes it hard for me.

Perry Romanowski (1:50)

Yeah, for sure. But India was a fascinating place. It's just it's it's almost it's controlled chaos really. Yeah, especially driving. You know, in America, we everybody drives in the lanes and stuff and there's lights and things. But I don't know what their rules were. But, you know, people just drive into each other and somehow they never hit each other. Did they just all kind of know? Wow.

Valerie George (2:14)

Yeah, that's that's pretty great.

Perry Romanowski (2:16)

Lots of circles. And there's actually cows and dogs on the side and on the street. So you had to watch out for them. And but but everybody seemed to make it work. So it's fascinating place.

Valerie George (2:26)

And what were you doing there?

Perry Romanowski (2:28)

I was giving a keynote speech at their annual SCC India SCC meeting, which which is great, too. There was a lot of very interesting talks. You know, there's a lot going on there. And a lot of people are looking at developing new products, new ingredients. But overall, it was it was a fabulous trip.

Valerie George (2:49)

Well, while you were in India, lots of stuff was going on here. So I went back to Kent State for a board meeting for their foundation board.

Which I really enjoy doing that. The president of the university, Todd Diacon, actually listens to the podcast. So that feels pretty good. And he always has really great books to recommend. So, of course, I loaded up the Amazon cart and upset Mr. Cosmetic Chemist when they started landing on our doorsteps. But yeah, always good to go back home. I was going to...

Perry Romanowski (3:23)

He can't be upset that you're improving your brain, right?

Valerie George (3:27)

Well, I mean, you know, yeah, he just doesn't like stuff, I don't think. But I always give the books away on Instagram afterwards because I like to read a hard copy. And some of these books aren't available at the local library. So anyway, so there was that. And I went to the college bookstore and the person checking me out was born after I graduated. So that felt pretty terrible.

Perry Romanowski (3:50)

Well, you know, that's going to happen. Yep.

Valerie George (3:53)

Well, it is happening. Yeah, I know. But it was a really nice trip. And I'm looking forward to all those things that I do there. And then I went back to LA for the show Makeup in LA. Have you ever been?

Perry Romanowski (4:07)

I've not been to the show, no.

Valerie George (4:09)

Okay. It's all right. It's primarily a packaging show, but I hosted a panel of different hair care brands. And we talked about just challenges and ways that they approach innovation and that type of stuff. So that was really nice. And it's actually going to be turned into a Society of Cosmetic Chemists webinar.