Beauty Question Extravaganza - AMA - episode 242

Perry Romanowski (0:01)

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 242 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and today is going to be a solo show.

Valerie was swamped with work, and I want to make sure that we got a show out for you today, even though she can't make it. So she'll be back next show, but today it's just a solo one. And since it is a solo show, I like to experiment a little bit here. And I should say that we've gotten in a number of questions that, well, just we haven't got to, because we tend to prioritize questions. If they're an audio question, they get pretty high priority, as we like to hear other people on the show.

If it's to our Patreon accounts, we answer the Patreon questions prior to give them the top status. So if you wanted to become a Patreon subscriber, go to patreon.com/ The Beauty Brains, and you can ask your question there, and we'll get that one on as soon as we can. But we also have the opportunity, we send in the show notes, there is a link to click on where you can ask questions. And this is a spreadsheet that I have, and we have a number of questions that were sent in. And so I figured I would just do a rapid question and answer session, where I just go through and I answer as many questions as I can within the allotted time for the show, which I don't know, I guess we don't have a lot of times for the show, but I'm gonna see how many I can get done in say 30 minutes. So without further ado, let's get on to the beauty questions. Now, this is just a huge hodgepodge of questions as they come in. I haven't edited anything. I'll just read the question and give you my two cents. There was a podcast that I listened to called Mindscape, the Sean Carroll Mindscape. Good show. But every month he does an Ask Me Anything AMA, and I think we could do that. So this is kind of an AMA The Beauty Brains edition. So here we go.

First question comes to us from Jane. She says, Beauty Brains, I am going insane ever since skincare influencers on YouTube have been rising. It is so confusing. The one thing I know is true and that everyone can agree on is that SPF is essential. Each influencer then seems to have an opinion on what else is essential. It's hard to know if they truly believe it or it is because they are sponsored. I won't name specific influencers because I really do not wish to cause drama. My head is just going to explode. I'm going to keep trying to reach you and I'm going to even leave a voicemail. Well, I don't think we got that, but let's answer this question here. So the question is, how do you know to trust? Well, to answer the original question, like what's good for your skincare? The only thing really proven that is good advice that everyone can follow for skin is use a sunscreen and also don't smoke. Those UV damage and damage caused by smoking are two of the most significant bits of damage to your skin, and that along with just getting older. So if you use sunscreen, don't smoke and don't get older, you'll have great looking skin. Now you can't really not get older, but you can do something about the other two. But I don't believe in general, any other general advice is going to be applicable to all people. And this is one of the problems with skin fluencers and other skin gurus that you'll find on the internet. Something that may work for their skin may not work for your skin. You know, so the advice you get is just what works for them. It shouldn't be looked at as generally true. Of course, this implies that they are telling you the truth, and they're not biased by what some company is paying them to say. There certainly are internet celebrities who have a financial interest in getting you to buy products. So what they are telling you, you shouldn't necessarily look at it as true.

So you really can't know for sure if people are being sincere or not. Now, the third problem is that the definition of what they think healthy skin is, is also somewhat arbitrary. I look at my skin and I think it looks pretty good, it feels good, and you know what? I don't do much about it. My wife tells me I need to use a moisturizer and maybe that would help. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think I have any problems, but it's not really worth the trouble for me to do that, even if it would help my skin feel better, I guess. I don't know. So if your attitude about skin is anything like mine, there isn't much that you can do. I wash my face while I shower and that's about it. I mean, I don't even use shaving cream when I shave my face. I just use hot water. However, if you have a different attitude about your skin and what you want it to look like and feel like, and if you want to feel some certain way, then there are certainly things that you can do that might help. Certainly daily moisturizing probably isn't going to hurt you unless you're sensitive to ingredients. I see things like double cleansing and toners. They're just unnecessary overkill. Washing your face once is going to remove the vast majority of dirt and debris on your face, and all the additional products that they talk about, they aren't going to lead to much different results in my view. So unfortunately, there is no simple answer beyond use sunscreen and don't smoke. After that, you do whatever works for you. If you want to exfoliate, try it out. Sure. If it makes you feel better, that's great.