Is vaping bad for skin – episode 197

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 scientists answer your beauty questions and give you an insider's look at the beauty product industry. This is episode 197 I'm your host, Harry Romanowski, and it's a solo show today. Valerie is traveling and Sarah Bellum is working, so it's just gonna be me.

On today's episode, I'm going to be answering your beauty questions about whether vaping is bad for your skin. Again, if inverse hair conditioning is beneficial, and whether you need to worry about emulsifiers in skin products.

But first, I guess this is where I usually do a little chit chat, but you know, there's nobody to talk to, so that's just you and me.

So let me just skip right to doing some beauty science news and tell you my thoughts on things that I've seen in the beauty world.

Here's a story reported on by BuzzFeed. They say the FTC said Sunday Riley faked Sephora reviews for almost two years to boost sales. The skincare brand Sunday Riley has agreed to settle with the FTC. That's the Federal Trade Commission. They are responsible for policing advertising claims in the United States. And this is in regards to the FTC's investigation into the writing and posting of fake reviews. The FTC was tipped off by a whistleblower, probably a disgruntled employee, I doubt, no doubt. And they concluded that Sunday Riley, the brand, participated in crafting fake online reviews for products. That the brand downvoted negative reviews, which those negative reviews eventually with enough downvotes got removed. And then they had the employees all the way up to the CEO, Sunday Riley herself, posting fake reviews. Yes, the job of the CEO is also to post fake reviews. Go figure. Amazingly, the settlement with the FTC, they did not impose any fines, and it doesn't even require the company to admit that they did anything wrong. Lots of teeth into that investigation. The settlement just means going forward, the company promises not to do it again, and they promise to give training to all their employees on the fact that posting fake reviews is against the law. I guess they just didn't know that. Now, there were a couple of dissenting members on the FTC board who said this in their message about the settlement. Today's proposed settlement includes no redress, no disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, no notice to consumers, and no admission of wrongdoing. The statement says, Sunday Riley and its CEO have clearly broken the law, and the Commission has ordered that they not break the law again. Unfortunately, the proposed settlement is unlikely to deter other would-be wrongdoers. No kidding. I can't say that I disagree with that. If I recall, this is also the person who called herself a cosmetic chemist, but never actually got a degree in chemistry or had any formal training. Sadly, I see that a lot more online. I guess it's not exactly surprising. The company chose to exaggerate the amount that people like their products.

Now, I wonder how this news, because it's a little bit of news, I wonder how that's going to affect sales. I was reading a little bit on the Reddit skincare addiction. There are a lot of displeased people there. You know, the beauty business is pretty competitive, with new brands popping up all the time. However, the technology used to make beauty products really hasn't changed significantly in the last two or three decades, really. And it's no wonder companies will pull these types of shenanigans to build up their brands. Their technology or product performance certainly isn't going to build up a brand. This just goes to show that you can't always rely on online reviews that you read about products. Well, Sunday Riley got caught because there just happened to be a whistleblower. You have to wonder how many other companies are out there that just don't get caught. Places like Amazon or Yelp, they don't really have the ability to crack down on fake reviews. If your company is suitably motive enough to game the system, they're going to be able to do it. I don't know what you as consumers can do about that, really. Just continue to be skeptical of beauty products with big claims and lots of accolades.

The accolades may or may not be real.

Next up is a story that J&J is in the news again about Talc. I tell you that company really can't catch a break, can they? After losing multiple times in court for the unproven and not scientifically supported conclusion that their Talc has caused some people to develop cancer, now they've had to recall a lot of baby powder because the FDA found levels of asbestos in a sample of their product that's on the market.