Episode 351 - Glycolic acid as a deodorant? Plus trends for 2024

Valerie George (0:00)

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

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 cosmetics industry. This is episode 351 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:27)

Hello Valerie, great to see you.

Valerie George (0:29)

Good to see you. On today's show, we're gonna cover beauty trends and our predictions for next year, but we're gonna include some questions like, do pharmaceutical grade claims mean anything?

If my product smells like stinky feet or cheese, does it still work? Can glycolic acid be used as a deodorant? And do salon hair brands really work better? Which is an interesting question because I got it from someone else today, so I'm excited to answer it. But first, inane chit chat.

Perry Romanowski (0:58)

Well, if not so inane, this is holiday season. I was out holiday shopping today, so.

Valerie George (1:04)

Oh, shopping for Mrs. Perry?

Perry Romanowski (1:08)

Yes, like probably many relationships, she does all the shopping for everybody else, and I just shop for her.

Valerie George (1:16)

Oh, that's so nice. It's actually the opposite for us. Mr. Cosmetic Chemist is always on my tail, like, what are we doing for your parents? What are we doing for your siblings? Here's what we're doing for my sister.

So, he's good like that.

Perry Romanowski (1:31)

Yeah, that's very good. I have no skill in this regard. In fact, to get ideas, I went to ChatGPT and just asked the AI what I should get.

I know, it's terrible.

Valerie George (1:44)

Well, I hope she likes whatever you got her.

Perry Romanowski (1:47)

Oh, she will. Yeah, I'm not as bad as I'm coming off here, but I do like the assist, you know?

Valerie George (1:53)

Yeah. Well, I enjoy shopping and picking out things thoughtfully or even making things for other people, but just been really busy this year with the move. I usually make a bunch of stuff, and unfortunately, that's not getting to happen.

Perry Romanowski (2:06)

Well, you know what I find very difficult, especially this phase of my life, is like there's nothing I really want. And my wife, if she wants something, she could just go buy it. So it's like, it's hard to get, you know, it's hard.

And I feel so much pressure because it's that day someone's opening it up, you know, you don't want them to be disappointed or something.

Valerie George (2:29)

Like the Christmas, my dad got my mom this beautiful leather coat, but she was searching all the pockets for the diamond earrings she really wanted. And they weren't in there.

I'll never forget that Christmas. Well, I've told you about Stache the cat, but we have a few new kitties.

Perry Romanowski (2:46)

Oh yes, your alley cat, right?

Valerie George (2:47)

Yeah, we have a few new kitties hanging around the lab. It turns out Stache really loves men.

If I'm there, he'll just, you know, kind of look at me from a distance. But if a man shows up, he prances over, what are you doing? What's going on? And he just loves the males. But I have Misty and Patches who love women and they don't like men. So I have two kitties.

Perry Romanowski (3:11)

There you go. Like how old do you think these kittens are?

Valerie George (3:14)

Oh, they're less than a year old.

Perry Romanowski (3:17)

Oh, wow.

Valerie George (3:18)

Yeah, they're pretty small. Yeah. And Patches had a little hurt paw. I think it's just a little, you know, ankle sprain sometimes they pop a joint the wrong way. Yeah.

And we have another cat who, well, Captain is the orange cap, but we have another cat, Mr. Cosmetic Chemist named him Whitey because he has what looks like a white scarf on a black body.

Perry Romanowski (3:41)

A nice tuxedo cat then.

Valerie George (3:42)

Yeah. Well, it's, but it's a scarfy cat.

Perry Romanowski (3:46)

Right, right. It's more of a cummerbund than a tuxedo cat.

Valerie George (3:50)

It's like the Oliver Twist of tuxedos.

Perry Romanowski (3:52)

Sure, sure. Yes.

Well, that's fun. Hopefully you can catch them and get them fixed so you don't have a more, a bigger brood, but now are you putting out food for them?

Valerie George (4:02)

I do. I have a little bag with me. I don't think they're impressed. It's Iams, but you know, I'm learning. They have a high brow taste, I guess.

Perry Romanowski (4:13)

Oh, well, you know.

Valerie George (4:13)