Is Micellar water really great and should you put lobster on yourself to get great skin? Episode 241

Perry Romanowski (0:00)

Hi, this is Perry, I just wanted to cut in and apologize for the sound quality of today's show. We had a little audio issue, and we don't have the best recording, but I think there was some good stuff in here, and so we're just gonna go with it.

I hope you enjoy this one. 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 a unique look at the cosmetic industry. This is episode 241 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:46)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:46)

How are you holding up on this election day?

Valerie George (0:49)

I'm doing okay. I haven't had a chance to look at anything. I'm just here working away, so.

Perry Romanowski (0:56)

Yeah, me either.

Valerie George (0:57)

Mostly how it goes tonight.

Perry Romanowski (0:59)

No, me either, and let's make this a no-election-free, or it's an election-free zone. Whatever happens tomorrow just happens, and we'll live with it.

But you know what's gonna happen today?

Valerie George (1:09)

Ooh, what's that?

Perry Romanowski (1:11)

On today's show, we're gonna answer some questions about beauty products. Specifically, is micellar water as great as it's made out to be? How does John Freida's Lightning shampoo work, and is it a permanent color change? Is it okay to add lactic acid to a moisturizer? Where do you find studies on how ingredients perform? And are hair straighteners still using formaldehyde or formaldehyde donors?

Ah, Valerie, yeah.

Valerie George (1:37)

Very interesting, good show.

Perry Romanowski (1:38)

Yeah, of course we're gonna do a couple of Beauty Science News. But I did want to say that last week was my big online trade show called Teamworks here in the Midwest.

And it went all right. It was a bit of a challenge.

Valerie George (1:54)

Everything was good?

Perry Romanowski (1:56)

You know, we had eight hours of content about cosmetic raw materials. Ooh, really thrilling stuff. But it did give me a chance to...

Yes, it gave me a chance to learn about preservatives and thickeners and the latest technologies there. Also gave me a chance to juggle and play the ukulele in front of an audience of over 3,000 people.

Valerie George (2:18)

Oh, God, of course you did that.

Perry Romanowski (2:20)

And incidentally, the replay will be up. So if anybody in The Beauty Brains audience is interested in such things, I'll provide a link in the show notes of where you can see that replay, at least for the next two weeks.

Valerie George (2:35)

Well, very exciting for our listeners who are interested in learning more about what we do.

Perry Romanowski (2:41)

Or just seeing some ukulele playing.

From which aren't many. All right, shall we move on to the Beauty Science News?

Valerie George (2:52)

Yeah.

I read an article this week that I thought was very interesting. Two University of Maine students discovered a protein derived from lobster could come the dry itchlerop of eczema, according to an article in mainbiz.com. That's not a scientific publication, but I guess there was an article there. So two students were researching lobsters, and they hypothesized that this protein they found would hydrate the skin. One of the researchers suffers from eczema, and she decided to do a patch test to check the glycoprotein's effects.

In just a few days, her eczema started to clear. Wowee.

Perry Romanowski (3:40)

Wow, that's amazing.

Valerie George (3:42)

Since then, the pair have formulated a cream for retail that combined the glycoprotein they found with other skin hydrating and protecting ingredients, including hyaluronic acids, gualine, shea butter, coconut oil, and vitamin E. The product helps to build the skin's barrier while hydrating and minimizing skin moisture loss.

And I pretty much just read out of an article in Cosmetics and Toiletries, which is where this was found, but I went on a bit of a Twitter rampage about this because what a compelling, beautiful story, but I feel like there's some flaws or at least some things that were not discussed. So, okay, very small study group. N equals one.

Perry Romanowski (4:26)

One person had eczema. Right, so it doesn't get much smaller than that. It doesn't get much smaller than that.

Valerie George (4:31)

They found this random, yeah, glycoprotein. And we're like, hey, you know what? Maybe this will cure my eczema. And they just put it on their own skin without any other safety studies.

I mean, who does that?

Perry Romanowski (4:45)

Well, at least they didn't just take a whole lobster and rub the lobster on the back of their skin.