What to look for in a facial sunscreen – Episode 173

Valerie George (0:00)

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

Hi, 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 173 I'm your host, Valerie George, and on today's episode, we're gonna cover a couple of news stories we found interesting in the cosmetics industry, and then we'll answer a couple of your beauty questions about, do silicones dry out your skin? Why do white hairs on my head turn reddish at the ends? And what ingredients should I look for in a sunscreen while I'm exercising?

But first, I wanna say hi to the cohost of the show, Perry Romanowski. Hi, Perry.

Perry Romanowski (0:46)

Hello, Valerie. How's it going?

Valerie George (0:48)

Oh, it's been raining in California. I know we talk about the weather a lot, and I told myself we wouldn't talk about that today, but it's so unusual to have rainy weather here.

Perry Romanowski (0:59)

I saw this movie yesterday, which is about California. It was some old rock movie where it was just quite ridiculous, quite frankly.

Valerie George (1:08)

Rocks like the Rock or rocks like mudslides?

Perry Romanowski (1:11)

Dwayne Johnson, the Rock. Somehow there was this earthquake, and I think it was called San Andreas or something.

It was just ridiculous.

Valerie George (1:21)

That sounds pretty bad.

Perry Romanowski (1:23)

There's a lot of breaking the laws of physics in there.

Valerie George (1:27)

That usually happens.

Perry Romanowski (1:29)

Indeed. Actually, it's a little snowy here in Chicago, but I'm looking forward to going to Florida tomorrow.

Valerie George (1:35)

Ooh, what's in Florida?

Perry Romanowski (1:37)

Well, I'm actually going out there to give a talk to a company out there about the topic of clean beauty products.

Valerie George (1:44)

Very interesting.

Perry Romanowski (1:46)

Yeah, I will actually be giving that talk, or a version of that talk out in California in September. So maybe we'll get to record a live show.

Valerie George (1:55)

Very cool. The talk in September, I do know, is for the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, California Chapter, one of our dinner meetings. So if you live in SoCal, and you want to hear Perry talk in person, and meet me, that's where I live, we'll give a shout out to the details when that time comes. What do you think?

Perry Romanowski (2:12)

Yeah, I like it. Maybe we could do like a live recorded show.

Valerie George (2:16)

Cool, cool.

Perry Romanowski (2:16)

In front of a studio audience.

Valerie George (2:19)

And we won't have to give the applause sign, because everyone will be cheering anyway.

Perry Romanowski (2:23)

That's right.

Valerie George (2:24)

No, maybe not. Well, let's get into our beauty science news.

So the Royal Society of Chemistry has a challenge for you. It's actually an ongoing challenge, not anything new, but here's how you can win 1 million pounds.

Perry Romanowski (2:41)

Yeah, that's like $1.3 million or something, right?

Valerie George (2:45)

Yeah, pre-tax, we'll say. So they have this ongoing competition, and thank you so much for reminding me that this competition is still going on. I read about it a while ago, and just sort of forgot about it because it's not really a viable contest in my mind. But the Royal Society...

Perry Romanowski (3:03)

Well, it's viable according to beauty marketers, right?

Valerie George (3:07)

Yeah. So the Royal Society of Chemistry has this ongoing program where they are willing to award 1 million pounds to the first company or person that can produce a chemical-free product.

Perry Romanowski (3:19)

Whoa.

Valerie George (3:19)

Chemical-free.

Perry Romanowski (3:22)

I'm surprised they haven't paid that out yet. I see chemical-free advertised all the time.

Valerie George (3:26)

Well, they must not know about this contest.

The Royal Society of Chemistry started this program in 2010, and unsurprisingly, if you couldn't tell her sarcasm, no company has won the award thus far. So if you have any ideas, and you're up to winning 1.3 million based on today's exchange rate, US dollars, head to the Royal Society of Chemistry website and look for their chemical-free competition.

Perry Romanowski (3:52)

And Valerie, why do you figure people haven't, nobody's won this. I mean, we see products all the time advertised for chemical-free.

Valerie George (3:58)

Well, no secret. There's just no such thing as chemical-free in today's world. If it has water, if it's anhydrous, everything is composed of chemicals at some point in time.

Perry Romanowski (4:10)

Exactly, chemical-free is just a silly, meaningless marketing term, which most chemists find offensive.

Valerie George (4:18)

Yeah, and for me, it's meaningless. I really get sad when I see the terminology used because I think it's misleading. And then, well, you have people say, well, you know what I mean.