Episode 381 - Can babies eat sunscreen? and other beauty questions

Valerie George (0:00)

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

Perry Romanowski (0:27)

Hey, Valerie, this is actually Perry. No, not virtual Perry.

Valerie George (0:31)

Thank God, because on today's show, the actual Valerie and the actual Perry are gonna cover lots of questions, including what can you use to fight static? Is it okay for babies to eat sunscreen? What are the best ingredients to use for conditioning hair? What is the difference between body wash and hand soap? And how does the performance of various retinols compare to retin-A? But first, inane chit chat.

Perry Romanowski (0:57)

Valerie, you were gone for a little while. I did a solo episode. What have you been up to? We haven't seen you in a while.

Valerie George (1:04)

I've been very, very, very busy. We have been planning to go on some end of year trips, me and Mr. Cosmetic Chemist. It's our 10 year wedding anniversary. And yeah, we were going to go to a very remote Pacific island. We, thank God, insured it, because now we can't. But I was gone preparing for all the leaving, and now I'm not leaving, so.

Perry Romanowski (1:28)

Oh, well.

Valerie George (1:30)

Big disappointment.

Perry Romanowski (1:31)

Hopefully you get to the island at some other point.

Valerie George (1:35)

I know, I was really upset, but life happens, so that's what's happening.

Perry Romanowski (1:40)

Yeah. You know a place I want to go, I want to go to Madagascar sometime. It's like a remote island, right?

Valerie George (1:46)

One of my customers went there, and I should say client, one of my clients went there, and it's incredible place. I actually love Africa. I've been to Africa, I've not been to Madagascar, and it's really, really quite special. So I think you should go.

Perry Romanowski (2:01)

Well, it's on my list. Although I was thinking of also there's a marathon that you run in Antarctica. And I got an ad for that. Like, hey, do you want to do this marathon?

Valerie George (2:13)

Why do that when you live in Chicago? It's like Antarctica. It's very cold.

Perry Romanowski (2:19)

I know, but I bet nobody has ever run and juggle the marathon in Antarctica.

Valerie George (2:25)

There you go. Always looking for the record that can be set.

Perry Romanowski (2:29)

But then I saw it was like $25,000 to do, so I'm like, yeah. Unless I get a GoFundMe, then absolutely.

Valerie George (2:36)

I don't know if it's that high on the bucket list. I think we're set.

Perry Romanowski (2:41)

I'll wait till it warms up there. Speaking of warming up, I am going to LA for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists end of the year meeting.

Valerie George (2:49)

I'm very disappointed we won't get to see each other. Again, I was planning to be there with you. We were actually going to record a live show together.

Perry Romanowski (2:57)

That's right.

Valerie George (2:57)

And not able to attend. Again, thank goodness for at least being a points holder with places, because they're very forgiving when you are a frequent traveler, and they say, oh, Mrs. George, we understand. So that's good. But I'm so jealous you're going to get to go see all the talks.

Perry Romanowski (3:17)

Yeah, well, we'll see. Hopefully, it's worthwhile. I saw some of the scheduled talks. But there are a lot of good ones, too.

Valerie George (3:27)

Yeah, it's hard because a lot of the research is done by all of the raw material manufacturers, and sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's like, this is a secret sales pitch, and I don't appreciate it.

Perry Romanowski (3:40)

Yeah, it's really a challenge looking at science in the cosmetic industry because it is an industry, and they're trying to sell something. And so sometimes the science gets a little, well, let's just say biased.

Valerie George (3:55)

Yeah, yeah. Well, I look forward to hearing all about the show from you. Let's head over to Beauty News.

Perry Romanowski (4:07)

Well, the first article I saw was about this company, Dr. Squatch, is being sued for deceptive natural claims. Apparently, amid growing consumer scrutiny, it's a recent class action lawsuit was brought against Dr. Squatch because they said their products are natural, but then they use some synthetic ingredients. So this is kind of not new. I guess the new part is because the cosmetic industry has been doing this forever. I mean, when I worked on the first VO5 Naturals, we just called it naturalism, put some herbal extracts in it, and then it was natural.