Episode 344 - When are there too many ingredients in a product

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 344 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:31)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:31)

It's good to see you. On today's show, we got a few questions. Does mineral sunscreen prevent hyperpigmentation better than standard sunscreen?

What do we think of the Blue Land products and what do we think of one skin products? And finally, when are there too many ingredients in a product? But Valerie, first, some of our chit chats.

Valerie George (0:56)

What's been going on with you this week, Perry?

Perry Romanowski (0:58)

Well, you know what I got going on just today? I'm catching cats.

Valerie George (1:02)

What's happening? Are there more kitties?

Perry Romanowski (1:04)

Yeah, the neighbor's, the neighbor feral cat had four kittens.

Valerie George (1:09)

Wow.

Perry Romanowski (1:10)

So then I'm like, okay, we got to stop these kids because there's like 12 cats now.

So I got cages and I've already caught two. They're sitting in my basement and I'm going to take them to get fixed tomorrow.

Valerie George (1:24)

Oh, are they friendly to you?

Perry Romanowski (1:27)

These ones are way feral, so no, they're not friendly at all. I still got to catch two of my friendly ones, but they are a little brighter. They don't just go into the cages.

Valerie George (1:38)

Oh, so these would be more of a catch and release scenario.

Perry Romanowski (1:42)

Oh, yeah, they're all catch. So the thing you do is they call it TNR, trap, neuter and release. So you catch them.

If they can be adopted, sometimes they'll keep them, but usually they catch them, they clip their ear after they neuter or spayed them, and then we let them go right where we got them. So you try to minimize the stress.

Valerie George (2:02)

Yeah, that's true. Dogs don't get their ears clipped. I mean, well, they're not TNR, they're usually homed, dogs might be with someone, but they get a little blue tattoo on their belly.

Perry Romanowski (2:13)

Oh, really?

Valerie George (2:13)

Yeah, both Butch and Frank have blue tattoos, yep.

Perry Romanowski (2:16)

Wow, well, there you go. Yeah, so if you ever see a cat with a clipped, one ear is clipped, that means it's already even spayed or neutered. That way-

Valerie George (2:25)

Or gone to a fight.

Perry Romanowski (2:26)

Well, usually. Well, if you see, I mean, they do it sort of a distinctive way, and so, or could have got in a fight, yeah.

All right, speaking of fight, let's get into some beauty science news.

Valerie George (2:43)

I saw a really cool article from Virginia Tech that they are creating soap from plastic waste.

Perry Romanowski (2:49)

Really, so they just, what, take plastic, melt it down, and somehow turn it into soap?

Valerie George (2:55)

Yeah, the method, they heat long carbon chains in plastics, then quickly cool them, and it forms some kind of soap. But I have a lot of questions.

Perry Romanowski (3:07)

Yeah, if plastic is this easy to turn into soap, why don't we just do it with everything?

Valerie George (3:11)

Yeah, and what are the byproducts from this heat production process? Usually when you heat plastics, there's some byproducts that are not too good.

Perry Romanowski (3:23)

Yeah, because that's all the additives that you put to the plastics, because the polymers are pretty good on themselves, but if you want them to be moldable and shapeable, and have a certain rigidity, you have to add extra chemicals. That's where something like BPA goes into your plastics. I mean, there's a reason the ingredient is in there. It's not just in there to scare people to death, but it actually has a function.

Valerie George (3:45)

Yeah, I really do like what they're doing though, because maybe this isn't viable. It did create a really catchy headline. It could pave the way for some future recycling processes, and it could pave the way for someone else to get a really bright idea.

Perry Romanowski (4:01)

Yeah, this is kind of in line with what they call upcycling, right? You take something that's already been used, and you turn it into something more valuable, I guess.

Valerie George (4:11)

Well, it's interesting that this article came out in the same week that Lego has announced that they're actually not going to make Legos out of recycled plastic.

Perry Romanowski (4:20)