Episode 367 - Long Hair Myths and Microneedling Marvels

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 367 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)

Valerie, we got a lot of hair questions today, although we do have one skin question, but you know what we're gonna cover?

Valerie George (0:37)

What?

Perry Romanowski (0:38)

We are gonna cover the questions. Is a deep conditioner really needed? Is long hair bad for your pregnancy? What ingredients in hair products might make you lose your hair? What hair products can you use that don't have toxic chemicals in them? And do micro needles help ingredients work better in the skin? But first, some chit chat. We got the big Brazil thing trip coming up in the fall, huh?

Valerie George (1:09)

It's just a few months away. It's really hard to believe it's coming up.

Perry Romanowski (1:13)

Yeah, the IFSEC of which both of us are a part of, the International Federation of Society of Cosmetic Chemists, they're having a big congress in Agusa Falls. Brazil and Valerie and I are both going to be there, so that'll be fun.

Valerie George (1:28)

Yeah, it's, I forgot, to be honest. I forget about a lot of my trips until they come right up. But the good news is I have a passport. I'm keeping it away from Frank and Butch. One likes plastic, one likes paper. Passport has both. Sure. And we'll see what happens.

Perry Romanowski (1:46)

Well, that's good. I'm looking forward to that trip. Although we have the whole summer ahead of us. You doing any traveling during this summertime?

Valerie George (1:53)

I am speaking at a conference in New Zealand.

Perry Romanowski (1:56)

Oh, yes, that's right. Boy, another big trip for you.

Valerie George (1:59)

For the New Zealand Society of Cosmetic Chemists. I'm very excited for that. Even though it is winter time in New Zealand, I'll probably be happy about that because Texas will be in the midst of its very hot summer.

Perry Romanowski (2:11)

Well, I have to say, I was in New Zealand in the winter time, in July is when I went, and I was able to go skiing, which was fun, skiing in July.

Valerie George (2:21)

Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (2:22)

But also, though their winter is like 50 degrees, it's not like cold winter like Chicago or Ohio winter.

Valerie George (2:30)

That's true. So that'll be nice. But we'll see if that actually happens because I'm so sick of people telling me, oh, this isn't so bad, that's not so bad with relationship to weather. And then it's the worst one on record.

Perry Romanowski (2:43)

It could happen. Well, global warming is wreaking havoc on the entire planet everywhere, isn't it?

Valerie George (2:48)

It is. But yeah, that's where we're headed this summer. That's it.

Perry Romanowski (2:52)

Speaking of wreaking havoc, shall we get to the beauty news?

Valerie George (2:55)

Let's head there.

Perry Romanowski (3:02)

I saw this story about Drunk Elephant, and they're encouraging consumers to mix their own sunscreens. The title was creating a semi-custom SPF just got a lot easier with Drunk Elephant's latest launch. They've launched a new customizable sunscreen trio called the Umbra Koka Mineral SPF 30 Sunscreen. These three sunscreens are supposed to be able to be mixed together and blended to create a personalized SPF formula that matches the user's skin tone. They are zinc oxide based ones, so 20% zinc oxide. And they're supposed to protect against UV damage, blue light, pollution, blah, blah, blah. Formulated, non-irritating, sensitive, no chemical sunscreens, except of course zinc oxide, which is a chemical. They also don't have silicones or fragrances, essential oils, the kinds of stuff you'd expect from Drunk Elephant. And they have their Sinister 6 or something when they started out.

Valerie George (4:01)

Oh, gosh, don't even get me started on that. You know, ordinarily, we would never advise to mix sunscreens. However, it seems they designed these three to be intermixed together. So I have some questions for Drunk Elephant, who is owned by Shiseido, which is a very big company. They do things right.

How have they assessed the SPF efficacy through all the varieties of these combinations?

Perry Romanowski (4:32)

It's a really good question. I haven't seen a product launched in this manner, where they're telling you to mix the formulas together. The one thing I will say, though, is that if you look at it, each of the things by themselves would have an SPF of 30 So if you're mixing a 30 with a 30, it's unlikely you're going to make it go less than 30