Episode 363 - Head, neck, knees and toes questions

Valerie George (0:01)

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

Perry Romanowski (0:29)

Hello, Valerie, great to see you.

Valerie George (0:31)

It's great to see you. On our 198th episode together, we're gonna cover lots of questions, including are shampoos for different hair types all that different? Can topical products help skin once it's aged? Should you buy tretinoin without a prescription? Do products that claim to get rid of stretch marks really work? How does a clay mask make skin tingly and red? But first, I'm gonna see you at Suppliers Day in a couple days.

Perry Romanowski (0:56)

Yeah, actually, I'm in New York City already. I'm teaching a class tomorrow, and then Suppliers Day the next couple of days. So that'll be fun. All the industry people will be there.

Valerie George (1:06)

Everyone's gonna be there.

Perry Romanowski (1:08)

Yeah, that's right.

Valerie George (1:09)

Mostly raw material suppliers, yes.

Perry Romanowski (1:12)

That's right. I've already found a karaoke bar for us to go to.

Valerie George (1:15)

Oh, very cool. I will not be singing karaoke.

Perry Romanowski (1:20)

You know, I did hear you do, what is that, Bryan Adams before, so, you know, maybe.

Valerie George (1:25)

I do like a little bit of Bryan Adams. That's one of my karaoke songs. It's not very good, though. The Canadians don't appreciate it.

Perry Romanowski (1:33)

They do not. But we had a lot of fun. Well, it should be a good show. Is there any new technology that's gonna be shown there, you think?

Valerie George (1:43)

I am excited to see what's gonna happen, because I missed an even bigger show called In Cosmetics, which took place in Paris this year because my dog Frank ate my passport and my dog Frank also ate the letter from the Department of State that said damaging your passport is a very serious thing, and he destroyed that as well. So Frank is anti-government. But nonetheless, there was a lot of stuff. I feel like I missed it in cosmetics, and it's all going to be at Suppliers Day, New York. However, I don't know if I'll get to see it, because I'll actually be working. I am going to provide technical support to a distributor for the day, so I get to put my salesperson hat on.

Perry Romanowski (2:22)

Well, I'll walk the show and let you know if there's anything good, and collect the little candy bars that they have. I always appreciate that.

Valerie George (2:29)

Oh, I also need some of those metal spatulas that booths give out, because I can't find them. We must have lost some, so if you could grab some of those for me as well, I'd appreciate that.

Perry Romanowski (2:39)

I will do that too. You know, incidentally, a friend of mine had asked, she listens to the show actually, and she says, I really respect Valerie's opinion on stuff. She doesn't really respect mine, but your opinion, she's well. So she wanted to know what you thought of The Ordinary as the products from The Ordinary.

Valerie George (3:02)

Well, it's hard to believe how so cheap they get them. Their profit margin must be insanely small. So sometimes I scratch my head wondering how they maintain profitability even at scale. And maybe it's a company that's not profitable. I don't know, I don't know the inside, but from a product perspective, I think it's fine, perfectly fine, as to quote Perry, because the products are simple. They're not loaded with unnecessary things. You can pick a concentrated form of an active that is purported to work at those levels that they advertise. So I think it's really good value.

Perry Romanowski (3:41)

Actually, I think they were just bought by Estee Lauder recently.

Valerie George (3:44)

Oh, I knew they had some investment money from them. What's interesting is I actually recommended The Ordinary to a coworker in a previous life of mine, because I thought they're really great value. They disclose what's in them, the use levels. And the coworker told me, I prefer to spend money on my skin care.

Perry Romanowski (4:04)

Well, that is always one of the challenges.

Valerie George (4:07)

Well, the good news is The Ordinary is affordable. So for the price, you can't beat it.

Perry Romanowski (4:12)

You cannot. All right. We're looking forward to That Supplier's Day.

Valerie George (4:17)

Well, let's head over to Beauty News.