Should you take toxicology advice from Youtube? episode 297

Perry Romanowski (0:00)

I am 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 cosmetic industry. This is episode 297 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:29)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:30)

So good to see you today. And on today's show, we are going to answer a bunch of questions, including how would a US citizen get a sunscreen from outside the US? Recommendations on non-pilling vitamin C products? Why is a foundation considered a hazmat product?

Is CurlSmith a less expensive version of Olaplex? And can you believe the claims of YouTube derms telling you that sunscreen may be causing your hair loss?

Valerie George (0:57)

Wow, no way.

Perry Romanowski (1:00)

It is amazing, and we'll get to that one. But first, Valerie, how are you today?

Valerie George (1:06)

I'm doing great, just here in my new lab that I'm building out, now that I am consulting, and need a space to do formulation. So it's just in a little nook of my ingredient warehouse that I have. And...

Perry Romanowski (1:20)

So you gotta get mixing equipment and beakers and all that stuff?

Valerie George (1:24)

Yeah, I have a lot of that stuff here. Mr. Cosmetic Chemist wasn't too happy with me when a truck with two incubators showed up on pallets, necessary for stability testing.

But nonetheless, he helped me unpack them.

The space is in an interesting neighborhood in LA. It's in a neighborhood where there's a lot of other manufacturers around. You can't even look without seeing another manufacturer. But my neighbor doesn't make cosmetics. It's actually Kevin Hart.

Perry Romanowski (1:55)

Kevin Hart, like the actor?

Valerie George (1:57)

Yeah, yeah, he has a little space here. It's like a sound stage or recording studio or something like that.

And they play lots of loud music or someone does in the facility towards the side where my lab is. And they're usually done by about 10:30 a.m. But today, they're still going strong. So hopefully they turn that off soon because it's very disruptive. I work in silence.

Perry Romanowski (2:22)

Yeah, and we don't want it to bleed over onto the podcast.

Valerie George (2:25)

Yeah, and there's another interesting thing about the area I'm in. In addition to being a cosmetics manufacturing mecca, it's also a porn mecca.

And there is a studio in my complex. They left a couch by the curb, and at first I didn't even think of them. I was like, wow, this couch is really nice. And then I went up to it, and I noticed that all the leather from the center of the couch was kind of scuffed and missing.

And I was like, what? Oh, oh yeah, I'm not touching this couch. Who knows what's happened on it? It was a couch that kind of folded down into a bed if you needed it to. From a distance, it looked like it was in good condition though.

Perry Romanowski (3:01)

Well, it sounds like you have an exciting area where your company is going to be, where you're building your billion-dollar empire.

Valerie George (3:07)

Yeah, lots of action over here.

Perry Romanowski (3:09)

God, you got to love California. Well, I spent yesterday all day at a trade show.

Valerie George (3:15)

Yeah, TeamWorks, right?

Perry Romanowski (3:17)

Yeah, the Midwest SEC had their biannual trade show and got to see chemicals from all over the industry. Honestly, the focus of what's going on in the beauty industry now is all about sustainability.

A couple years ago, it was all green and natural, and now it's all sustainability.

Valerie George (3:37)

Yeah, I remember when the raw material suppliers used to come to meetings and say, oh, this comes from leftover blank, or there's a sustainability program. And honestly, it was just kind of like, I'm interested, and I find that very compelling, but you have to convince the marketing team that that's something interesting and compelling to choose. And now, not only is everyone doing it, but marketing's on the bandwagon. So I'm grateful for that, and it'll be very exciting for me to see what launches come up this year as well.

Perry Romanowski (4:11)

Yeah, I do wonder how much of that sustainability is like sustainability washing, you know?

Valerie George (4:17)

I'm sure a lot of it. I always say, don't forget, raw material suppliers have marketing departments too.

Perry Romanowski (4:22)

Yeah, absolutely. And I will say there was one presentation where the person started talking about clean beauty. And for some reason, I felt like clean beauty has jumped the shark a little bit.