This episode smells – we answer fragrance questions

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 176 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today, filling in for Valerie, is the rarely heard from beauty brain, Sarah Bellum. Hello, Sarah. Hello. Today is our all-fragrance question extravaganza. On this episode, we're going to be answering your beauty questions about what do the terms unscented and fragrance-free mean? Should you avoid fragrances in skincare products? What is the difference between synthetic and natural fragrances? And how do fragrances get chosen for products? Plus, we'll cover a couple of science stories that we found interesting in the cosmetic industry.

And in the words of that famous game show host and philosopher, Steve Harvey, we've got a good one for you today.

But first, we should say hello to Sarah Bellum. Hello, Sarah. Welcome back to the show.

Sarah Bellum (1:14)

Hi, Perry. It's always good to be here with The Beauty Brains. It's good to be back.

Perry Romanowski (1:19)

It's good to hear you. So what have you been keeping busy with these days?

You still in the beauty business?

Sarah Bellum (1:26)

I am. I mean, unfortunately, I can't make a living just doing podcasting. So, you know, I have a job.

Perry Romanowski (1:33)

That makes one of us, I guess.

Sarah Bellum (1:36)

But I work on the research side of the beauty industry, so I'm definitely keeping tabs on what's happening. And I just got back from a nice vacation.

Perry Romanowski (1:42)

Oh, really? Vacation, where did you go?

Sarah Bellum (1:44)

I went to the Cayman Islands.

Perry Romanowski (1:46)

Have you ever heard of them?

Indeed, indeed I have. In fact, I just went to the Cayman Islands.

Sarah Bellum (1:51)

Wow, that's weird.

Perry Romanowski (1:53)

Yeah, they had this one place, probably the most beautiful beach that I saw in the Cayman Islands was called Barefoot Beach. It was just wonderful.

Really? If you ever get a chance to go there. Oh yeah, there's like, and it had a long beach view. Just a really long beach view.

Sarah Bellum (2:14)

I must have missed that when I was there.

Perry Romanowski (2:15)

Well, you look left, you look right, long beach. Just the view, really, it's all about the view.

Sarah Bellum (2:20)

You know what I've heard? I feel like I've heard that before. I heard it before.

Perry Romanowski (2:23)

Hey, you know, now, I don't think this has really ever come up on the show before, but Sarah was actually a fragrance expert and was personally responsible for the fragrance in a really big haircare brand. Do you care to talk about that?

Sarah Bellum (2:38)

Sure, yeah, I used to develop fragrances for a major haircare company. One of the brands I worked on was Tressamay. You may have heard of them.

Yeah, so we've worked with some fragrance suppliers and created a very popular fragrance for that brand. So yeah, I worked quite a bit on the fragrance about the time.

Perry Romanowski (2:59)

Which I think they still use it today.

Sarah Bellum (3:00)

I believe they do. My legacy lives on, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (3:04)

All right, but before we get into those fragrance questions, why don't we talk about a couple of stories that we found interesting in the cosmetic industry? Sarah, why don't you kick this one off?

Sarah Bellum (3:19)

Sure, Perry.

So I just read this morning that Gillette and TerraCycle partner to make all razors recyclable nationwide. And I don't know if our listeners know this, TerraCycle has actually been around for a while.

Perry Romanowski (3:33)

So what's TerraCycle?

Sarah Bellum (3:34)

So basically, it's a company where they send you an envelope, like a bag, where you can throw all of your beauty product waste, so the packaging waste, and send it back to them, and they will recycle it for you.

Perry Romanowski (3:47)

So it's like in the mail then?

Sarah Bellum (3:48)

Yeah, it's through the mail.

So they're not a new company. They've been around, but I think their partnership with Gillette really just puts them on a bigger playing field. That's going to obviously drive awareness, and Gillette is also aiming to make recycling easier by offering drop-off points for consumers. And if you are part of the Gillette subscription program, they'll offer you some opportunities to recycle as well.

Perry Romanowski (4:12)

Wait, Gillette has a subscription program?

Sarah Bellum (4:14)

They do.

Perry Romanowski (4:15)

So they just copied off of like Harry's shaving?