Episode 321 - What's the right way to layer products?

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 321, or three, two, one, if you just like sequential numbers. I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today, as always, is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:34)

Hi, Perry. Is it three, two, one, unsequential?

It's like backwards.

Perry Romanowski (0:41)

Well, sequential doesn't have to be counting up, right?

Valerie George (0:45)

I don't know.

Perry Romanowski (0:47)

I don't know either.

Three, two, one, contact. That used to be a TV show or something like that.

Valerie George (0:53)

It's what we say when we count down to start The Beauty Brains episodes.

Perry Romanowski (0:56)

Oh, that's right. Three, two, one, go. Well, you know what we're covering on today's show?

We're covering questions about whether there's a specific way you should layer your skincare products. We'll answer a bunch of questions about silicones in hair care. We're going to talk about whether it's okay to wash hair that's been colored, and how long do you really have to wait between bleaching?

But first, some of that famous chit chat. So you were out in the deserts of California today, huh?

Valerie George (1:25)

I was running all around, picking up some ingredients for my ingredient business. When I can, I like to personally go arrange freight, especially if they're smaller items.

But I'm excited that you are headed to warmer weather because it means we're going to get to see each other soon.

Perry Romanowski (1:43)

That's right. The first place I'm going to stop, there's an active volcano going up. So hopefully nothing gets delayed there. And then I'll be out in the west coast and we'll hang out a little bit. I'm looking forward to that.

I don't think my outdoor cats are looking forward to that since they're not going to know where their food is coming from.

Valerie George (2:02)

Did you end up asking your neighbor if they could take care of little tucks and all the porch kitties?

Perry Romanowski (2:08)

I actually did. I saw my neighbor this today. I gave her a gigantic bag of food and said, could you please put a little extra out? Because she also feeds them anyway.

Valerie George (2:19)

Oh, cool.

Perry Romanowski (2:20)

Always thinking of the KitKats. And speaking of KitKats and our audience, we have some news.

Valerie George (2:27)

And thinking of other things, we're thinking of our patrons.

Perry Romanowski (2:32)

We are thinking of patrons.

Valerie George (2:33)

If you guys listen very closely at the end of the last episode, we teased a little giveaway that we're going to do for our patrons.

We're going to give full details in an email blast to our patrons on Patreon. But basically the gist of it is, I had a very, very, very large gift bag that was given to me at an event. And it was very lovely. Had lots of great products and fun things in it. And Mr. Cosmetic Chemist said, I'm not allowed to keep it because he said it has to go. So truth be told, I did keep one lipstick out of it.

But well, it's because I used it for an event. It's a long story. So I was like, okay, we can't give that away, but we'll give the full details out to our patrons for the month of December.

Perry Romanowski (3:20)

So if you want to be part of that, all you have to do is go to patreon.com/ The Beauty Brains and subscribe at any level. And you can be part of that giveaway. And now, Valerie, some Beauty Science News.

So what did you see this week?

Valerie George (3:44)

This is the day we've all been waiting for. And when I say we, me, you, all of our listeners, Sephora Clean Beauty gets sued.

Perry Romanowski (3:53)

Yeah, no big surprise here.

Valerie George (3:57)

No, not at all.

So basically, this is a non-criminal lawsuit. It's a civil litigation where a class action lawsuit is taking place, and pretty much in the United States, that's how things have to get handled if you feel someone is being deceptive. And that's exactly what consumers, or a disgruntled shopper, has thought, because Sephora is deceiving people by selling products containing synthetic ingredients under its Clean at Sephora banner according to a report published by Top Class Actions.

Perry Romanowski (4:33)

Yeah, the suit was filed in New York.

They're looking to seek damages and fees, and then also, I think, get Sephora to change their ways. I looked through the complaint on this one, and it looked like the person was complaining that she thought clean meant there's no synthetic ingredients, but obviously in lots of the products that are under Clean Beauty at Sephora, there are lots of synthetic ingredients. And it was funny to look through the lawsuit and see some of the things called out. Like they said xanthan gum is a synthetic ingredient. I'm like, I don't think you know what synthetic is.