How can I tell if a product will cause acne? Episode 155

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to The Beauty Brains Show, where real scientists answer your beauty questions. And now, here's Randy and Perry.

Randy Schuller (0:20)

Hi, everyone, and welcome to episode 155 I'm Randy Schuller.

Perry Romanowski (0:26)

And I am Perry Romanowski.

Randy Schuller (0:27)

And on today's show, you're going to hear part two in our six-part series on biodegradability.

Perry Romanowski (0:34)

Well, interesting, you say that, but I do have a story about the build-up of cosmetic ingredients in the environment coming up in the beauty science news section.

Randy Schuller (0:43)

Oh, my God, that's the tease? So the tease is, listen to today's episode so you can get more of the same crap we talked about last week.

Perry Romanowski (0:52)

Are you kidding me? We were maggoty with responses about how much people loved the last show.

Randy Schuller (0:57)

We did not get a single response. No, I will tell you what we're really going to...

Are you eating a cucumber?

Perry Romanowski (1:05)

I'm obsessed with cucumbers.

Randy Schuller (1:07)

We're recording a podcast.

Perry Romanowski (1:09)

No, in fact, this is harvest time, and I...

Randy Schuller (1:13)

Harvest time? Wait, where did you get the cucumber?

Perry Romanowski (1:17)

I grew a garden. I've got cucumbers and tomatoes.

Randy Schuller (1:19)

Are you serious? I did not know this.

Perry Romanowski (1:22)

Seriously. And in the last week, I've eaten 25 cucumbers.

Randy Schuller (1:28)

What is wrong with you?

Perry Romanowski (1:30)

I like cucumbers. My wife doesn't like them, so I have to eat it all. I feel obligated. I grew this thing.

Sorry, I'm almost done.

Randy Schuller (1:39)

No, no, no, no, no, because I'm sure this is much more interesting than actually talking about biodegradability.

All right, no, we're not doing a six-part series. That was a joke. What we're really going to talk about today is that we're going to answer questions from our listeners about acne testing, concentrated shampoos and conditioners, and hopefully, if we have time, stem cell creams.

Perry Romanowski (1:59)

Oh, can't wait for that.

Randy Schuller (2:01)

All right, well, since we've already sort of blathered on, should we get right to beauty science news?

Perry Romanowski (2:07)

Yeah, why not?

Randy Schuller (2:07)

All right, here we go.

Perry Romanowski (2:11)

Hey, Randy, you remember, remember when you went through that phase of lucid dreaming?

Randy Schuller (2:16)

Oh, yeah.

Perry Romanowski (2:18)

It was, it was interesting because Randy would come to work every day with this, this device which shot these red lights into your eyeballs or something like that, and you slept in it.

And I, you know, I, I tried to do lucid dream, but I, it's, it's typical between me and Randy, he'll buy all the equipment. I won't buy any equipment. I'll just borrow his. Never worked for either of us, I think. Anyway, here's an interesting article I stumbled on, which discusses work that researchers did looking at the influence of smell that it has on your dreams. So according to scientists at the University Hospital Mannheim in Germany, people who were exposed to the scent of rotten eggs during sleep, they had unpleasant dreams, while people exposed to the scent of roses had pleasant dreams.

Randy Schuller (3:05)

Once again, you're research dollars at work.

Perry Romanowski (3:08)

Well, in this highly scientific study of 15 women, apparently in the story, they said that women have better smelling ability than men, so that's why they used women.

Randy Schuller (3:20)

Interesting.

Perry Romanowski (3:22)

Anyway, 15 women.

Randy Schuller (3:24)

Because I know I certainly couldn't tell the difference between rotten eggs and roses.

Perry Romanowski (3:30)

Well, these researchers hooked these women up with tubes that they taped to their nostrils, and then they had them go to sleep, and then they monitored their brain activity, and when they hit that REM stage, the REM stage, that's like when you're dreaming, I guess. They gave them a shot of either the rotten egg smell or the rose smell, and they had that smell going for like 10 seconds. Well, then the scientists, they let them sleep for another minute, and then they woke them up and said, hey, how do you feel? They had to describe their dreams at that moment and then rate the experience as positive or negative, and what they found, that the people who had just smelled rotten eggs in their sleep had these negative feelings about their dreams, and the people who got rose dreamed it positively.

They think this could be a potential treatment for nightmares or other sleep disorders, but I'm thinking this could be a whole new product category for fragrance makers.