Episode 360 - Brushable hair spray, silicon peptides and more

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

Valerie George (0:30)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:31)

Well, Valerie, it's great to see you. And another great thing is we've got a bunch of good questions on our show today, including can silicones prevent the penetration of peptides into skin?

What makes hair spray brushable? Is the Revlonissimo shampoo safe to use? Does copper peptide turn vitamin C orange? And what are the basic ingredients in a mascara formula? But first, some of our famous chit chat. Valerie, it looks like you're in the lab right now.

Valerie George (1:04)

I am, but in a little bit, I will be headed to the home city of Perry Romanowski, Chicago.

Perry Romanowski (1:10)

That's right. Like how exciting you're coming to Chicago. We have a trade show here, which is called Teamworks, but it's like chemical raw material suppliers from around the world all converge into Chicago for one day, one day only.

Valerie George (1:25)

I am excited to go. I've never been. I'm not going for pleasure, although some could say that work is pleasurable. Sure. But I am going to help another ingredient company out at a booth. They are shorthanded, so I will be there at the show. And I'm very excited. I'm going to get to meet one of our Beauty Brains fans. She went to the same university I did.

Perry Romanowski (1:44)

Oh, really?

Valerie George (1:45)

Kent State? Yeah, she'll be working at a different booth. And I got connected to her through someone else, and she was like, oh my gosh, I listened to The Beauty Brains. And I was like, that's pretty cool.

Perry Romanowski (1:55)

Wow, that's great. Well, hopefully we get a chance to meet up. And that'll be fun. I'm sorry you're going to miss the social night, which is after, because you know what they're going to have?

Valerie George (2:06)

Ice cream?

Perry Romanowski (2:08)

Live band karaoke.

Valerie George (2:10)

That's your specialty. I don't know if The Beauty Brains fans know this or remember this, but Perry and I have done karaoke together in Canada at the Handcrafted Bath and Body Guild show in 2023

Perry Romanowski (2:24)

That was so much fun.

Valerie George (2:25)

It turns out Canadians are really good at karaoke. They take it very seriously.

Perry Romanowski (2:30)

Yes, at least the Cosmetic Chemist Canadians anyway.

Valerie George (2:35)

We got smoked, but we did play a lot of Brian Adams, which is a tribute to the Canadians.

Perry Romanowski (2:41)

Yes, well, it was a lot of fun. All right, Valerie, since you're going to be getting on a plane very quickly, let's move right on into Beauty Science News.

Valerie George (2:56)

This story hit the news this week because a lab, if we can call them that, named Valashur, has announced that products contain benzoil peroxide, which is an approved acne monograph ingredient by the FDA. Some of these products contain trace amounts of benzene, which is a carcinogen. And the world is in a kerfluffle, but everyone seems to be forgetting this is the exact same company that said benzene was in sunscreen, a couple of years ago. And the FDA basically said, your methods are crap, stop it.

Perry Romanowski (3:32)

Yes, well, that didn't stop them, because they tested more stuff that they thought maybe they'd find benzene in, and surprise, surprise, they found benzene. And they had to sort of make up this idea that, well, if you stored it in your car at like 70 degrees C for a few weeks, then it'll produce benzene that would be at harmful levels. This seems like a bit of a stretch.

Valerie George (3:57)

It's definitely a stretch. I was actually quoted in an article today by Beauty Independent where they got some of the perspectives of varying cosmetic chemists. It was really great to see. And I saw Esther Olu, who goes by the Melanin Chemist Online, she mentioned that the ValleyShare people probably have some kind of agenda for posting these studies because they, according to kind of Steven, according to her, according to kind of Steven, she says that the ValleyShare company actually has patented a technology to stabilize benzene. So they have some kind of agenda in posting these studies in my mind. Additionally, the FDA has asked them to stop this, and they keep doing it. So what's their motive?