That product cost how much to make!? Episode 418

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 cosmetic chemists answer your beauty product questions and give you an insider's look at the cosmetic industry. This is episode 418 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:28)

Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:30)

Hey, Valerie, we got a lot of questions today, and on the show today, we're gonna cover questions, including how much does it really cost to make products? Does goat milk have benefit on skin? Is Paula's Choice new serum really amazing? Is glycerin bad for hair? And what ingredients should you look for in a makeup primer? But before that, let's do some of that chit chat. Valerie, I want to thank you for squeezing me in here between baby duty here.

Valerie George (0:59)

Oh, yeah, baby sees napping, so we basically don't have a lot of time.

Perry Romanowski (1:03)

Right.

Valerie George (1:04)

Yeah. Mr. Cosmetic Chemist is gone. Ordinarily, he would be helping. He is attending the AFC Championship.

Perry Romanowski (1:12)

Oh, American football. That's right.

Valerie George (1:14)

Yep. A little guy trip that he's taking. So I'm alone. Of course, it's the weekend that a giant snowstorm hits Texas, and I am essentially trapped at my house because they don't do anything to the roads here. All I want are some donuts that are around the corner.

Perry Romanowski (1:35)

Yeah.

You're an Ohio girl. You're used to snow.

Valerie George (1:39)

I can drive on it, but it's not really snow. It's ice.

Perry Romanowski (1:43)

Oh, yeah.

Valerie George (1:45)

It's like an ice sheet on the ground.

Perry Romanowski (1:48)

They also don't clear the roads very well there in Texas, right?

Valerie George (1:51)

They actually do not clear the roads at all. So it's not well. It's at all. So basically, I'm trapped at the house. And when Mr. Cosmetic Chemist takes care of baby Sea when I have a work trip, we board the dogs. We make it as stress-free as possible. But we didn't do that this time. And I'm dealing with Butch and Frank. I'm dealing with baby Sea. I'm dealing with Doug. You know, it's just a lot. Oh, yeah, the cat.

Perry Romanowski (2:18)

You got cats and dogs. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I've got one of the porch kitties trying to move in now. Wow.

Valerie George (2:24)

Which one?

Perry Romanowski (2:26)

The Heat Miser. He's come in the house. Yeah. I mean, before he would come in a little bit, but he didn't get along with Teddy very well. So in fact, they've had a couple of fights. So I pretty much kept him outside. But sad to report Teddy is no longer. He passed away. So, yeah. It was tough. He had cancer and it was pretty spread pretty far. So, yeah, we're pretty sad about that. But, you know, then the heat miser, I guess he decided like we needed a cat around, I guess.

Valerie George (3:05)

Teddy's out, I'm in. Oh, he didn't waste a second. But you're such a good cat, dad. You have so many kitties to comfort you during this time.

Perry Romanowski (3:13)

There are, you know, another six out there. And we're having a white out right here in Chicago. There's like a blizzard. So yeah, so the cats are loving the snow, but they love that I still feed them. So there is that.

Valerie George (3:26)

Oh, good. Do they really like the snow?

Perry Romanowski (3:28)

Yeah, they kind of run around in it. I mean, they like to play in it and chase the little flakes.

Valerie George (3:34)

Oh, that's so fun.

Perry Romanowski (3:35)

Yeah. Then they have to find shelter and hide. Yeah.

Valerie George (3:39)

Oh, goodness. Well, with the snow comes cold, it's, you know, about 20 degrees here, which is unusual for Texas. So yeah, Doug is not going outside, needless to say.

Perry Romanowski (3:51)

Well, I have to say, it was minus nine here in Chicago. Oh, okay. So there you go. Hey, weather cats, how about we move on to the news? Valerie, this one kind of made the rounds. The FDA did a report on the PFAS, the, what is that, poly-fluorinated?

Valerie George (4:17)

Perfluoroalkanated substances. So basically a fully fluorinated carbon atom on a molecule.

Perry Romanowski (4:25)

Right, right. So the FDA issued a report, and PFASs sort of have made the news because they're called the forever chemicals, which essentially, they just don't really break down very quickly out in the environment, and so that's why they're considered concerning. So the FDA issued a report, which they're required to do under the new Mokro rules at the end of December, and they reviewed the intentionally added PFAS in cosmetics. So not the contaminants, just the intentionally added stuff. And they found the toxological data for most of these substances was either incomplete or unavailable. They identified 51 PFASs across over 1,700 formulations, and about 96% of them were only 25 were most frequently used.