Episode 390 - Squalene, micro needling, misleading labeling

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 cosmetic industry. This is episode 390 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:26)

Hello Valerie, great to see ya.

Valerie George (0:29)

Great to see you, we have a good show today, including lots of questions covering, can you make your own great treatment shampoo at home? Is an at home micro-needling system a good addition to a skincare routine? What is squalling, and why does my skin love products that have it in it? Why can't you feel the mental effect everywhere on your skin as strongly as other places? And what's the difference between body lotion, cleanser, face lotion, or just cleanser? But first, inane chit-chat.

Perry Romanowski (0:59)

Well, Valerie, it's good to see ya, I just got back from Florida. It was one of these road trips, you know how long it takes to drive from Chicago to Florida?

Valerie George (1:07)

Nineteen hours? Why am I going to say to the top of Florida?

Perry Romanowski (1:12)

You're right. It took, it was actually, we came right back from Orlando. I was at Disney World for a day. We went there for a day, and you know what I will remember about Disney World?

Valerie George (1:24)

People, lines, the expensiveness.

Perry Romanowski (1:27)

You know, I kind of just brushed off the expensiveness. I'm like, this is what stuff is. But the lines, I mean, you're waiting in line for a, we went in line for this Peter Pan ride, which Shannon remembered it from when she was younger, and she went there, and she's like, oh, this is my favorite ride. And the line was like an hour long, or over an hour. And you get on the ride, and the ride lasts like 90 seconds. Like, that was totally not worth it.

Valerie George (1:56)

Yeah, I'm not an amusement park person myself. I just, you know, it's great, but you know, just the people, the crowd, the waiting. I don't like to be on rides anyway, so I'm usually the official bag holder of any trip.

Perry Romanowski (2:09)

Oh, that's good. Well, I had a good time. I mean, I do like the roller coasters. They had the Tron roller coaster, Space Mountain, those were all cool. But there was a lot of waiting. And you know, I'm glad I take meditation, because I remember when I was a youth, the waiting was just unbearable to me. Now the waiting is not too bad.

Valerie George (2:27)

Well, that's good that you've been able to overcome that.

Perry Romanowski (2:30)

And what have you been up to since I was in Florida?

Valerie George (2:33)

Well, while you were in Florida, I've done a couple of things. So first, I went back to Kent State, where I went to college, and I had some really great meetings there with the university. So that was good. I got to see my family back home. And then I did a Girl Scout activity with super fan Summer, who listens to the show. She's in seventh grade, huge fan of the podcast.

Perry Romanowski (2:55)

Oh, nice.

Valerie George (2:56)

And Summer's also a Girl Scout. And so her family reached out to me and said, hey, we would love if you could do a Girl Scout activity with the troupe here in the Dallas area. And we made lotions.

Perry Romanowski (3:08)

Oh, that's so fun.

Valerie George (3:09)

And it was really fun. Yeah, I talked about a career as a cosmetic chemist. I talked a little bit about a basic emulsion theory of how a lotion becomes a lotion once you mix oil and water together. They got to take care of the branding and marketing side. So they got to name the lotion, design the label, make the label. Yeah, and then they got to take it home.

Perry Romanowski (3:30)

Wow, that sounds so fun. And it's a great way to learn about a little bit of the emulsion science.

Valerie George (3:36)

Exactly. And Summer, actually, because she listens to the show, she brought a little gift, not for me, but for Pretty Kitty. And it was Fancy Feast. Pretty Kitty loves non-seafood flavors, and so it was like turkey and chicken. Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (3:50)

Wait, you know enough about Pretty Kitty that you know her taste in food?

Valerie George (3:56)

Yeah, she kind of gets really fussy when you try to drop seafood on her. Sure. She's not a seafood fan.