Episode 365 - Is Topical Estrogen the Secret to Youthful Skin?

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

Valerie George (0:31)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:32)

It's been a little while since we've done a show, but that gave us a lot of time to get a lot of questions. So, on today's show, we are gonna cover why are people putting estrogen cream on their face? Can a shampoo offset the negative problems of hard water? Why aren't more beauty products sold in a concentrated form? When should you apply your leave-in and styling products? And what advice do you have for future cosmetic chemists? But before that, we just had a holiday memorial day, and you had a fun time down there in Texas, huh?

Valerie George (1:08)

Yeah, well, you also look like you had a fun time because you are a lobster. You have the skin color of a lobster.

Perry Romanowski (1:16)

Well, I think that is just the lighting here because I didn't really get any sun or anything, so I stayed out of the sun.

Valerie George (1:22)

Are you sure?

Perry Romanowski (1:25)

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure. I don't feel it.

Valerie George (1:29)

Press your skin with your fingers, and does it remain white? You have a little burn, a little.

Perry Romanowski (1:37)

Could be. You know, honestly, I probably didn't use as much sunscreen as I should have.

Valerie George (1:45)

Did you use the old sunscreen that was in your golf bag?

Perry Romanowski (1:49)

No, there was some sprayable sunscreen out there. I just sprayed it right into my face, like I always do.

Valerie George (1:54)

Oh, goodness.

Perry Romanowski (1:56)

Just kidding. But I stayed in the shade, so I probably didn't put on enough sunscreen.

Valerie George (2:02)

Well, we definitely stayed in the shade, because we have had some turbulent storms in Texas. Now, I've been in bad weather before, but usually you see it coming on a Doppler radar, and you can say, you know what? It's going to storm today. I should take precaution. But in Texas, the storms are not on the weather forecast, and they pop up out of nowhere, and maybe a tornado forms. I don't know. But I have been intermittently without power at my lab, at my house. Tree branches are everywhere. I'm pretty sure a portion of either my roof from my lab or my neighbor of my lab's roof was in our parking lot. We're not sure yet.

Perry Romanowski (2:43)

It seems like such a good idea for Texas to be on its own grid instead of using the entire United States like everyone else.

Valerie George (2:53)

Well, you know, I like having electricity. And it would be nice to have it turn back on one day.

Perry Romanowski (3:00)

It would be. Well, they don't like to use wind there either. They're like, it's only oil here, but you know.

Valerie George (3:05)

Oh, I think there's some wind energy.

Perry Romanowski (3:08)

Of course.

Valerie George (3:08)

But yeah, so anyway, my Memorial Day was spent mostly listening to tornado sirens, watching sideways rain hit the building, dealing with a little flood, you know, that kind of stuff.

Perry Romanowski (3:21)

Oh, sounds fun. You know, have you seen any of these cicadas? It was like all the big rage that we were going to get inundated with trillions of cicadas. And you know what? By my house, I haven't seen nary a cicada.

Valerie George (3:34)

I haven't seen a single one either. Where do you think they are?

Perry Romanowski (3:37)

Well, I did go out to my mother's house, who was in the suburbs of Chicago, and she had a ton of them. So I think they're just in patchy places around the city or areas. I don't know.

Valerie George (3:50)

That's very interesting. We'll have to see if there's some kind of cicada map.

Perry Romanowski (3:54)

Yeah, I'm going to have to look that up, but I do like the cicadas, you know, they're kind of loud, and they make a interesting noise, and they're fun to pick up.

Valerie George (4:02)

Eww, not for me.

Perry Romanowski (4:04)

I wonder if anybody is going to harvest them and use the chitin to make a styling gel or something.

Valerie George (4:11)

Well, why would they use the cicadas for that when we can get plenty of chitin and chitosan from shrimp shells, crab shells?