Is eye lash lift safe and effective? episode 209

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 beauty cosmetic industry. This is episode 209 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is, no, no, today is a solo episode. Valerie is out working, and Sarah Bellum isn't available, but you know what? I just wanted to get an episode out to you on my own. So there were a few audio questions that were sent in that I haven't got to, so I guess I'm gonna cover one of those. And you know what? I feel like ranting a little bit to get started.

Since I'm going solo, there are just a few topics that I'd like to rant a little bit about, give you the perspective of a cosmetic chemist, of somebody who actually makes these products and is not really involved in the marketing of cosmetic products. Making and marketing are actually two different things. I know that there are a lot of brands out there who market themselves as the formulator is the person who put this together, and you should buy it because of the formulator or whatever.

I don't do that. I've dabbled a bit with that, but I just don't enjoy the marketing of products in that way, mostly because there are a lot of great products on the market that work perfectly good, and they're available at a price that I could never compete with. If I produced a shampoo, and I could make a wonderful shampoo formula, actually, I was part of the Tressamay Formulation team, and we came up with a really good formula that people liked. I still love it, actually. But you know what? Personally, I couldn't make a shampoo or conditioner formula that works that good for that amount of money. And so from a consumer standpoint, you know, it's hard for me to market products that I know will cost more, but you could get other products that work just as well for less. So anyway, let's talk about a different topic, though. Let's talk about the concept of chemical-free. Can somebody please tell me something? When people say chemical-free, what exactly does that mean? Now, I look at things from the standpoint of a scientist, but you don't have to be a scientist to know that everything is a chemical, right? I mean, that was the kind of thing that you learned in grade school, wasn't it? Everybody I know had to take science class and things, and I know a lot of people don't like science in school, but everybody knows about atoms and molecules and chemicals, right? And maybe I'm mistaken, I don't know. Am I being mistaken here? I don't really know. I don't think so. I think everybody that I know probably knows that, right? Anyway, so I have to think that when people claim chemical-free, they must not actually mean chemical-free in the same sense that I take it. I mean, everything is a chemical, except, of course, stuff like gravity or UV rays or radiation, but anything that you might touch or hold in your hand or put on your body as a cosmetic is just made of chemicals. Acetic acid is a chemical, zinc oxide is a chemical. So, but what do people mean? Like, what do marketers mean when they say chemical-free sunscreens? Like I said, zinc oxide is a chemical, so they must mean something different. I guess they probably mean natural or safer or, you know, I really don't know. I genuinely, I genuinely want to know, like what do people who market this kind of stuff and say chemical-free, what do they really mean? Or do they, they must mean something.

So, anyway, maybe you can help me. Maybe I put up a post on our Instagram feed about this. We're at The Beauty Brains 2018 So maybe you might just weigh in. When you say, or some marketer says, or someone else says, chemical-free, what do they specifically mean? I'm just really curious to see what people have to say.

All right, how about another rant?

Can we talk about active ingredients and beauty products? On my Chemist's Corner website, which is frequented by cosmetic formulators, someone there posted that they thought most ingredients, like the active ones, are overrated. They further went on to say, over 99% of active skincare ingredients are overrated marketing hype. They simply do not have any visible effect on the skin, and the industry is built on lies. So to me, to say that the cosmetic industry is built on lies, that seems a bit harsh to me.