Episode 353 - Keratin treatment, Spiders in lotion and more

Valerie George (0:00)

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

We're Real Cosmetic Chemists, answer your beauty product questions and give you an insider's look at the cosmetic industry. This is episode 353 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:26)

Hello, Valerie. Great to see you in this new year.

Valerie George (0:30)

Happy New Year, our very first episode of the year. We're going to talk about some very interesting questions, including what are our thoughts of Patch 2O, or is it Pat H2O in skincare products?

Does tetrahexidosyl ascorbate degrade quickly due to oxidative stress? Is argeroline or matricul worth using? What are exosomes? And finally, how do keratin treatments work on hair and what are the benefits and disadvantages of doing them? But first, inane chit chat, Happy New Year.

Perry Romanowski (1:01)

Happy New Year to you. I covered one of my first goals of the year already.

Valerie George (1:07)

Wow, look at you.

Perry Romanowski (1:09)

Yeah, I have this goal. Every year, I have this goal to donate blood three times.

And so today, I went and donated blood.

Valerie George (1:18)

Wow, already checking that off. Do you, so you don't do, I thought you did it every 56 days or the amount of time you have to wait in between to donate. I thought you did that.

Perry Romanowski (1:30)

They would want you to, and I get contacted by the blood people like all the time. They're so obnoxious.

But I figure, I do three times a year, I'm doing more than my part, right?

Valerie George (1:44)

Don't you have a needed blood type though?

Perry Romanowski (1:47)

I'm O positive, which is...

Valerie George (1:50)

I think that's pretty good.

Perry Romanowski (1:52)

So it's one of the more common ones.

Valerie George (1:55)

Yeah, I'm A negative. I think that's like 12% of the adult population has that.

Perry Romanowski (2:00)

Yeah, A negative, there's not a lot of people who can take that, right? Yeah, no, if I was only O negative, more people will get to use me. But I like to think that I'm a positive person. So O positive works for me.

Valerie George (2:14)

And I'm a negative person. I wonder if the row factor has anything to do with our personalities. Well, I'm not negative, I'm a realist.

Perry Romanowski (2:22)

Sure, sure. On this show, do I come off more of a negative sort than you? I mean, I sort of...

Valerie George (2:29)

That's very interesting.

Perry Romanowski (2:30)

More cynical, I suppose. Although you're pretty cynical too.

Valerie George (2:35)

Well, we've just kiboshed that whole theory. I haven't accomplished a single thing yet this year, so I feel very behind compared to you.

Perry Romanowski (2:42)

Oh, I also finished reading a book.

Valerie George (2:46)

And really, we're less than three days into the new year, and you've already checked one book off.

Perry Romanowski (2:53)

I have checked one book off, but I went back to my 70-book goal.

It used to be I used to do 52, so one book a week. That seems reasonable, but then I was always getting farther ahead of that.

Valerie George (3:06)

I've downgraded my book reading goal, 26 books.

That is roughly a book every other week. It is unlikely to be accomplished. Now, I feel like why set the goal if I can't do it? I feel like I could do it if I had a two-week chunk where I took a vacation and I just read a bunch of books, plowed right through them.

Perry Romanowski (3:26)

Sure, yeah. You know, if you achieve your goals, then you're probably not setting them high enough.

Valerie George (3:32)

Exactly. Now, I don't think it'll happen because I am actually going to be teaching a cosmetic science course through University of California, Riverside.

Perry Romanowski (3:43)

Wow, wow, that's exciting. Now, what topic? Is it just general cosmetic science or is it specific?

Valerie George (3:51)

Well, my industry colleague, Dr. Ryan Kudla, is going to be teaching introduction to cosmetic science and I will be teaching skin and hair biology.

Perry Romanowski (4:00)

Oh, that's fun.

Valerie George (4:02)

Or as we should say, with hair chemistry, because hair is biologically dead but chemically alive. That's something I've said for many years. But nonetheless, that will take a big chunk of my time this spring.

Perry Romanowski (4:15)

Well, that's exciting. Now, are you going to have to do that in person or is that virtual?

Valerie George (4:20)

Well, what's great about this program, it's actually part of the certificate program through University of California, Riverside, is it's done remotely. The lab courses will be in person, which is a specific class that's not being offered this semester. And the study material where you're actually learning about skin and hair biology can be done remotely.