Jade Rollers – Micellar water – and more – Episode 171

Valerie George (0:00)

Hi, I'm Valerie and you're listening to The Beauty Brains.

Thank 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 number 171 I'm your host, Valerie George, and with me today is Perry Romanowski. Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:29)

Hello, Valerie. I have a cold, so I have this sexy low voice.

Valerie George (0:33)

Ooh, you are really going to woo today's listeners with that.

Perry Romanowski (0:39)

I'll endeavor to please.

Valerie George (0:43)

All right. On today's episode, we're going to be answering your beauty questions about, do Jade Rollers work or are they just hype?

Is micellar water good enough for cleaning off makeup? Will supplements give you better looking skin?

Is this hot, expensive hairline worth the money? And are the ingredients and cosmetics safe? Plus, we'll cover a couple of hot topics that have popped up in Cosmetics Industry News. And I'm really excited that we're going to cover a lot of things today with my co-host, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (1:13)

Yeah, it sounds like we have a good show. Hey, Valerie, you know, while I'm laid up with this cold, I found this app.

Valerie George (1:22)

Oh, what was it?

Perry Romanowski (1:23)

Well, the app's called Ucam Makeup. And it's...

Valerie George (1:28)

This is a good one.

Perry Romanowski (1:30)

Yeah, it's highly amazing to me because it lets... Now, I should say we aren't paid by the Ucam Makeup people, and I only got it because it's a free app, and I read about it, but I saw that you can change the color of your hair like in real time. And so I downloaded it, and I gave myself like purple hair and blue hair.

Valerie George (1:52)

Oh, cool. I tried this app at the... I think they were the Consumer Electronics Show last year, and I actually turned myself into a redhead, and then did an Instagram poll and asked my followers, should I consider dying my hair red?

And it was an overwhelming yes. So maybe it's proof that the UCAM app does provide some insights into looks.

Perry Romanowski (2:16)

I have to tell you, I'm really impressed with their algorithm or something, because you make your hair a different color, you can turn your head, and it really looks realistic.

Valerie George (2:27)

Yeah. Are you gonna consider dying your hair blue now?

Perry Romanowski (2:30)

You know, I think I look better in deep purple.

Valerie George (2:34)

Yeah, that's a good color. It was the color of the year last year.

Well, let's get into some beauty science news.

Perry Romanowski (2:40)

Great idea.

Valerie George (2:46)

All right, so the first article we have is from a website called Chemical Watch, and they posted an article that cosmetic animal testing ban was deemed pointless.

Perry Romanowski (2:57)

Yeah, you know, I was alerted, I have an alert for like chemical-free or animal testing. I have a bunch of alerts, right? But I was alerted to this story, which, it's interesting, because it suggests that the animal testing ban in the EU is actually pointless because it's routinely gotten around.

You know, this actually occurred to me when I first heard of this ban, and now the folks at Cruelty Free International have chimed in. You know, Cruelty Free International, they're the people behind the Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free certification?

Valerie George (3:30)

Yep, that's the emblem that appears as a rabbit on the packaging.

Perry Romanowski (3:34)

Right, it's supposed to mean that this company doesn't test on animals.

So as a little background, animal testing of cosmetics was completely banned in the EU in 2013 It was like, it was a process. It was like 2004 They eliminated things in 2009 And now in 2013, all animal testing is supposed to be banned for cosmetics.

So really no company right now in the EU is allowed to test their cosmetic products on animals. Anyway, the Leaping Bunny folks are claiming that the group responsible for regulating chemicals in the EU, that's the European Chemicals Agency, or ECEA, they say that they are undermining the animal testing ban for chemicals and cosmetics because they don't apply the ban to chemicals used for purposes other than cosmetics.

Valerie George (4:26)

Yeah, so really what we have here are two different agencies, right? So we have ECHA or ECEA, which is the European Chemicals Agency, which is looking at chemicals overall, but they're separate from the regulatory body that governs rules for cosmetics, which is the body that banned animal testing previously. So two different groups here.

Perry Romanowski (4:49)