When should you throw away cosmetics? and more beauty questions - episode 317

Valerie George (0:00)

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

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

Perry Romanowski (0:26)

Hello Valerie, happy Halloween.

Valerie George (0:29)

Yes, we are wearing coordinating Halloween colors unintentionally, so it's good to see that.

Perry Romanowski (0:34)

Orange and black, yes we are. You know, I have this big bowl of candy for the kids coming by, and nobody's come by, so now I'm just gonna have to eat all this candy.

Valerie George (0:46)

That's the best part.

Perry Romanowski (0:47)

Do kids not come by and trick or treat anymore? Does anyone come by you?

Valerie George (0:52)

Well, we don't know because we put our car in the garage and keep the lights off. But in my neighborhood, there are a couple streets where kids go.

Perry Romanowski (1:02)

Yeah, we have decorations, we have lights, we have music going, and people just walk by. I mean, we have a sincere pumpkin patch. Why don't they come by?

Aw.

Valerie George (1:13)

Well, the good news is that gives us time to reconnect. We haven't seen each other in a long time, and we're going to cover really great questions on today's show about why would high humidity cause hair to become flat? Does Vegamour GRO Hair Serum really work?

Do you have to throw makeup away past the expiration date or can you keep it? Would hypoallergenic products contain nickel and is there a way to protect your skull from hair color?

Perry Romanowski (1:40)

Like your whole skull, like the bones? Maybe scalp, right?

Valerie George (1:46)

Yeah, yeah, I think that's what they meant.

Perry Romanowski (1:48)

You know what, it is Halloween, so yeah. Can you protect skulls from hair color?

Valerie George (1:53)

Yeah, totally appropriate. They knew what they were doing.

Perry Romanowski (1:57)

Indeed, indeed.

Valerie George (1:58)

Well, we haven't seen each other in a really long time. First, sad news, our little lovely Kukla, who everyone used to hear clickety clacking in the background, passed away.

That's why I've been away from things. Yeah, yeah, we loved her so much. And then you've been out of the country.

Perry Romanowski (2:19)

I, for the first time ever, went to South America. It's a continent I had not been to, but I did a trip to Santiago, Chile, and Montevideo, Uruguay.

Valerie George (2:30)

Yeah, I saw your photos. It was very cool.

Perry Romanowski (2:33)

You know, it's interesting. They don't speak a lot of English down there.

Valerie George (2:37)

How's your Spanish?

Perry Romanowski (2:38)

I can say watermelon, Sandia. But, you know, I always wanted to learn every language, but then I figured I couldn't do that, so I picked one word, and that one word was watermelon.

So I can say that.

Valerie George (2:54)

What's watermelon in Greek?

Perry Romanowski (2:58)

Carapuzzi.

Valerie George (2:59)

Did you use your memory castle for that?

Perry Romanowski (3:02)

No, that one I just remember.

Valerie George (3:05)

Oh, okay. It is Carapuzzi.

Perry Romanowski (3:08)

Wassermelon in German. You also know German.

Valerie George (3:11)

That's not as exciting. Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (3:13)

Carapuzzi. Yeah.

Valerie George (3:15)

Carapuzzi. They eat a lot of watermelon in Greece.

Perry Romanowski (3:19)

You know, if you're out there and you know some language that I don't know watermelon in, I'd love to hear from you.

Valerie George (3:24)

Yeah, that'd be really fun.

Perry Romanowski (3:25)

You know what else is really fun?

Valerie George (3:27)

Beauty Science News?

Perry Romanowski (3:28)

Yeah, let's hear some.

Valerie George (3:35)

The first article we have, benzene is in dry shampoos and was Unilever at the head of the issue. I'm just kidding, that's not what the headline says, but it's basically a recall of benzene-laced dry shampoos.

Perry Romanowski (3:48)

Yeah, it turns out that they detected some elevated levels of benzene in some of their products, including Bedhead, some Dove, some Nexus, some Suave, some Rockaholic, and my old pal, Tressa May.

Valerie George (4:05)

Oh, wow.

Perry Romanowski (4:06)

All the dry shampoos, they decided that were produced before October 2021, they decided to recall.

Valerie George (4:12)

Well, let me tell everyone what's happening. So this is linked a little bit, if everyone remembers the fact that sunscreens, specifically aerosol sunscreens, were contaminated with benzene, and everyone made a big deal about this study that was released. Well, now these dry shampoos are laced with benzene, and they're not recent. This isn't a recent issue. As Perry mentioned, the products are from older production dates, but around this time, some producers of propellant for aerosol products notified the manufacturing facilities for aerosols and said, hey, we have an issue. We have benzene in the aerosol propellant, which is why we're finding benzene in aerosols. This is specifically an aerosol-related issue.