Is Quaternium 18 a silicone? Episode 179

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 scientists answer your beauty questions and give you an insider's look at the beauty product industry. This is episode number 179 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:27)

Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:29)

I'm so happy to be back.

Perry Romanowski (0:31)

Yes, it's good to hear you. I've done a couple of shows on my own, but people were asking about you, so it's great to have you back.

Valerie George (0:38)

You did a great job on those shows, by the way, even though it was solo, and Sarah Bellum helped you out a little bit. They were very good, and I hope everyone's happy to have me back.

Perry Romanowski (0:49)

Thank you. Yeah, so what's on the docket today?

Valerie George (0:52)

Well, today, we're going to answer a couple of beauty questions that came in about what are the benefits of broccoli seed oil, what is the deal with California's banning list of toxic ingredients, or trying to ban.

Can you easily remove Coturnium-18 from the hair? And plus, we'll cover a couple more stories that we found interesting in the cosmetics industry this week.

Perry Romanowski (1:12)

Well, excellent. Sounds like a fun time. And speaking of fun times, you're back. Now, you were gone a couple of weeks, traveling out there, what, in Europe?

Valerie George (1:22)

Yeah, so I was gone a few weeks, three and a half weeks to be exact. It was one of my longest trips yet.

And I first started out for a business meeting in Germany, and then I spent time with family. I grew up in Germany, so it was good to see my cousins and so forth. I headed to the manufacturing facility in Italy and had my usual large number of espressos. And then I headed to In Cosmetics Global, which was held in Paris this year.

Perry Romanowski (1:52)

Wow, the traveling life of a cosmetic chemist. So you're in Italy, and then there was a big show in France.

Valerie George (1:58)

Yeah, In Cosmetics Global, it's held every year. I think we've talked about it a couple of times on this show, but it travels to a different European city every year.

And this year it was in Paris, which is not my favorite European city, but, you know, it's not bad.

Perry Romanowski (2:14)

See, I love Paris, but it's a good city.

Valerie George (2:18)

I think, you know, it's pretty polluted. I know that they've been trying to clean up the air, and for me, I just love to breathe clean air.

And even coming from LA, going to Paris, that's pretty bad.

Perry Romanowski (2:31)

Wow, yeah, that is pretty bad, because LA is not known for their clean air, although it's much better than it used to be.

Valerie George (2:37)

Yeah, not at all. So anyway, it was a great show. It was good to see friends that I've met through the industry and some Twitter friends, other cosmetic chemists that I follow on social media.

Also great to see interesting trends that are going to pop up from this side of the industry, because not every idea comes from marketing, but it was a lot of fun.

Perry Romanowski (2:57)

So the show is pretty much an ingredient show, and they kind of show all the new ones that they want cosmetic chemists to put in their formulas, which eventually will get advertised to consumers maybe.

Valerie George (3:07)

Yeah, hopefully. There were some pretty neat things.

Perry Romanowski (3:11)

I imagine it was nature-heavy.

Valerie George (3:13)

Yeah, for sure. And I think as people are being aware of where their products are coming from and where the ingredients in their products are coming from, transparency I think was a big factor as well, knowing what feedstock your ingredients are coming from.

Perry Romanowski (3:28)

Fascinating where the industry is going. You know, speaking of the industry, they opened up a new store here in Chicago, The Ordinary Store.

Valerie George (3:36)

Ooh, did you get to go?

Perry Romanowski (3:37)

I did. My wife dragged me along to go because she really wanted to go. I've heard of The Ordinary, of course, and all the stuff going on with that, but I really didn't know what their point of differentiation is.

It was interesting to go in there because it seems like on the front of their packages, they put the percentage of active ingredients that's in there, so I guess that's their big deal.

Valerie George (4:01)

Yeah, they are into using efficacious levels of ingredients and disclosing that to the consumer. So again, this trend in the vein of transparency.