Can I use a facial cleanser as a shampoo? Episode 212

Valerie George (0:00)

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

A show where real cosmetic chemists answer your beauty product questions and give you an insider's look at the cosmetics industry. This is episode 212 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is the most bug-bitten broadcaster in beauty, Perry Romanowski. Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:29)

Hey, Valerie, I'm still itching these. I was in the Caribbean, and I got bit by a bunch of sandflies, and there's like 100 bites, but.

How are you doing? You had the week off last week because of an illness.

Valerie George (0:41)

Yeah, I didn't have a vacation necessarily like you did, but I had the flu and bronchitis. Not fun at all.

Perry Romanowski (0:51)

Now, are you sure it was the flu or was it this new famous virus?

Valerie George (0:55)

Well, they didn't test for that because I hadn't been traveling, but I did let them know my boss had been traveling. He got the flu, allegedly, and I got it from him. And they just don't have enough testing kits, and they actually said I would have to leave the hospital and go to LA. County to get that testing done.

And I was like, yeah, I think it's the flu. So anyway, I'm doing much better.

Perry Romanowski (1:18)

Well, that's good. Good to hear. I hope you can't spread anything through the microphones here.

Valerie George (1:24)

Good thing sometimes there's location between us.

Perry Romanowski (1:28)

That's right. Yeah.

Valerie George (1:29)

Well, speaking of that famous virus, we are going to talk about it a little bit on the show in our Beauty Science News, and then we'll answer a lot of beauty questions today. Including, what are the best facial moisturizers for sensitive skin? Is there a big difference between facial cleansers and shampoo? Will castor oil help your hair grow?

And, how does someone become a cosmetic chemist? Are you ready?

Perry Romanowski (1:54)

I am ready. So, are we going to dive into the subject that everyone's talking about?

Valerie George (1:59)

Yeah, let's do it. [♪ music playing, but with no music playing.] So, I don't think anyone can turn on a news channel without hearing about the coronavirus.

Perry Romanowski (2:13)

It seems to be everywhere.

Even my wife says everybody at her company is talking about it, and you know, all the people contacting me. Like, this virus is really taking over a lot of bandwidth.

Valerie George (2:25)

And you can't even turn on a single beauty news channel without hearing about the coronavirus. And I do want to mention this article I saw in Cosmetics Business News, because it does talk about just in general what the outlook is on the industry, because the beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and this virus is having a huge financial impact on it, more so than just impacting the stock market.

Perry Romanowski (2:53)

You would think on some level, you know, here you hear people buying up, like, hand sanitizers and cleansers and things. So on some level, it's gonna help in some areas, I suppose. I mean, help, I mean, it's just, I suppose people aren't gonna use extra, right? And I don't really know.

It's hard to predict the future.

Valerie George (3:10)

Well, there's a couple of things going on. So first of all, a lot of the supply chain within the cosmetics industry comes from overseas in Asia, and that is pretty much on lockdown.

Not only are factories partially back to work, if they're even to work at all, we're going to continue to see packaging delays with packaging coming from China. And of course, a lot of raw materials are created in China, especially raw materials for fragrances and hair colorants. So we're gonna continue to see delays on raw materials in that way, just because people aren't back at work yet.

Perry Romanowski (3:46)

Yeah, that's really amazing that this could have that much of an effect, but it really is.

Valerie George (3:52)

Oh yeah, L'Oreal has even said in this article, of course, that their in-store footprint has slowed down, but surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, their e-commerce is still thriving, as people are looking to online to buy their products, instead of going to crowded places like malls and stuff like that.

Perry Romanowski (4:11)

And yeah, with the way that, at least in the United States here, with the way that the government is handling it, I only see them becoming more restrictive, and there's already a suggestion that you avoid crowds, I guess, so.

Valerie George (4:24)

Yeah, in fact, a lot of our trade shows have been postponed or canceled.