Episode 378 - Hair bonding, sponges, and becoming a cosmetic chemist

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

Valerie George (0:30)

Hey, Perry, welcome back. I missed you.

Perry Romanowski (0:33)

Yeah, I missed you too. I've been gone a long time, and unfortunately, I wasn't able to get shows recorded and edited, so we've had a little bit of a hiatus, but we are back, and we are stronger than ever. And on today's show, we're going to cover a lot of questions, including what is it required to become a cosmetic chemist? Why don't beauty products have safety seals on them? We've got questions about makeup sponges and the everlasting questions about hair bonding. But first, some chit chat. Yes, Valerie, it has been a while. I just returned from South America yesterday, had a lovely time in Argentina.

Valerie George (1:13)

I was supposed to be in South America with you at IFSCC, remember? But then I fell and hurt my leg.

Perry Romanowski (1:20)

Oh, that's right. Well, I hope your leg is better. The show, yeah, was the IFSCC Congress in Brazil. And actually, I met a few people who listened to the show. So that was very cool.

Valerie George (1:30)

Oh, very cool.

Perry Romanowski (1:32)

Yeah, it was wonderful. And the Brazil was wonderful. And then after that, I went to Argentina. And Argentina reminds me of going out west to Colorado or California. Lots of big mountains, lots of windy roads, and lots of animals.

Valerie George (1:52)

Wow, very cool. Well, I'm glad you're back. I, as I said, I really missed you. I had to do a solo episode, except I was too scared to do it, so I had Sara Bellom come on with me.

Perry Romanowski (2:04)

Oh, yeah, yeah, that was a fun one to listen to. And well, I'm happy to be back. You know, in Argentina, they have a bit of a different relationship with their pets, specifically dogs. There are dogs everywhere.

Valerie George (2:17)

I love it.

Perry Romanowski (2:18)

It seems like there's a dog for every person who lives there. There are dogs everywhere.

Valerie George (2:22)

What about cats?

Perry Romanowski (2:24)

There were a few cats, much fewer cats. If you go to Europe, there's cats everywhere. But Argentina, just dogs everywhere. And the dogs will just, they're not on leashes. And you go into a restaurant, and there will just be like three or four random dogs sitting around under tables. So if you go to Argentina, you should like dogs. Fortunately, I do like dogs there.

Valerie George (2:46)

Yeah, very good. I would absolutely love it there.

Perry Romanowski (2:49)

Oh, yeah.

Valerie George (2:49)

I haven't been up to much, just the usual old stuff. The cats are missing. I think Pretty Kitty and the kittens are dead. I told you we have that fox. Yeah, it's just not a good situation, so.

Perry Romanowski (3:03)

It's the hard life of an outdoor cat. Well, you know, I was gone for over three weeks, and so I actually worry about the porch kitties. But I came back, I've seen all nine of them, so they all made it perfectly fine without me. Fortunately, my neighbors all feed them too. But they seem to miss me, especially Little Blue. She's super friendly now, where she wasn't before.

Valerie George (3:29)

Wow, so they actually, she said hi to you, and was like, meow, I miss you.

Perry Romanowski (3:33)

Yeah, yeah, no, she rubs up against me, she lets me pick her up, which she doesn't usually do that before.

Valerie George (3:39)

Well, when Pretty Kitty disappeared, I thought maybe she was mad at me, because I touched her.

Perry Romanowski (3:45)

Oh.

Valerie George (3:46)

And yeah, she didn't like when I did that. But no, I think either someone done stole her, or most likely, you know, we have that silver fox living out on the prairie behind us, and I think they got her, just like they got Stache.

Perry Romanowski (4:05)

Well, that's especially a place out where you live, which is more wild than where I live in the city here.

Valerie George (4:12)

Chicago's pretty wild, but different kind of wild.

Perry Romanowski (4:14)

Yeah, well, you know, my neighborhood is pretty quiet. It's almost like being in the suburbs where I live. So that's the thing about, whenever you hear about cities, about how dangerous stuff is, it's really, you know, cities are so big, and there's spots where some places are more dangerous than others, and it's not so simple to say that. In fact, people will ask me if I was worried about going to South America, and Argentina or Brazil, and you know, I felt perfectly safe walking around the cities and the towns, and everybody was really friendly. So I think sometimes places develop undeserved reputations about how scary or dangerous they are. Because when you actually go there, they're just like everywhere else you go, at least as far as interacting with people.