Why isn’t everyone exfoliating with AHAs? Episode 159

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to The Beauty Brains Show, where real scientists answer your beauty questions. And now, here's Randy and Perry.

Randy Schuller (0:19)

I'm Randy Schuller, and I'm here with my partner Perry Romanowski, and you are indeed listening to The Beauty Brains podcast. If you prefer text, you can also read a transcript at thebeautybrains.com. And of course, as always, you can watch the live video stream of the showgram on our YouTube channel.

So Perry, what's going on?

Perry Romanowski (0:38)

Video feeds?

Randy Schuller (0:40)

Oh, well, we do have a transcript. Technically, we don't have the video feed yet. I'm hoping someday we have that. I mean, right now on our YouTube channel, all that it shows is reruns of the 1966 Spider-Man cartoon.

Perry Romanowski (0:52)

But hopefully, eventually, we'll get there.

Randy Schuller (0:57)

Hey, before we get to that chit chat that I know is all bottled up inside you, let me just mention what we're going to talk about today. We're going to answer a question about why everyone is not using AHAs.

We're going to explain the difference between ALS and SLS, the alphabet soup question. And then we're going to talk about whether or not silkworm cocoons are good for your skin.

Perry Romanowski (1:19)

Well, that sounds like a great show. I can't wait to listen.

Randy Schuller (1:23)

Well, you have to participate as well.

Perry Romanowski (1:25)

Hey, you know, just to get to some of that inane chatter, I actually do have some beauty related thing. I'm going today. I'm doing a science fair out at one of the local, I don't know, the local grade schools. And me and my partner are going to be demonstrating how to make lotions, right in front of the kids right there.

Randy Schuller (1:49)

Oh, excellent. So, banishing dry skin from 11-year-olds, good for you.

Perry Romanowski (1:55)

Exactly, we're trying to get more beauty consumers out there.

This school does a celebration of Pi Day, because, you know, we're recording this today on Pi Day. 314 Actually, you know, a lot of people don't know this, but I have memorized all the digits of Pi.

Randy Schuller (2:12)

That's quite a feat.

Perry Romanowski (2:15)

Yeah, just not in order.

Randy Schuller (2:18)

Could a control room could have a rim shot in here, please, for the chemistry humor?

Perry Romanowski (2:22)

Remember when we used to have sound effects? We loved those.

Randy Schuller (2:26)

I was never a big fan of the sound effects. Hey, but you know, actually, speaking of sound effects, now, I'm very excited. So for our next segment, you know, when we go to Beauty Science News, you always ask me to cue the music.

Perry Romanowski (2:38)

Oh, yeah, sure.

Randy Schuller (2:40)

Well, today, we're going to do something we've never done before on the show. One of our listeners actually composed a custom piece of music for us to use for this segment.

Perry Romanowski (2:52)

Really?

Randy Schuller (2:53)

Yeah, seriously. So this comes to us from Amanda.

So I'll do the cue up, and then I'll play the new Beauty Science News introduction. All right, ready? Here we go.

Perry Romanowski (3:02)

Sure.

Randy Schuller (3:02)

It's time for Beauty Science News.

Perry Romanowski (3:11)

Wow, that was great.

Randy Schuller (3:13)

You know we have made it as professional podcasters when people are sending us their own compositions to play on the show. I think that's awesome.

Perry Romanowski (3:20)

Absolutely.

Randy Schuller (3:20)

Well, thank you, Amanda. Perry, you want to take the first story?

Perry Romanowski (3:24)

Sure. Today's story that caught my eye was a story published in Cosmetics Business, and it talks about some research done by Procter & Gamble, and specifically their Olay brand, and the genetics company 23andMe. 23andMe is the company where you send them a swab of your cheeks or whatever, and they tell you your ancestry or something.

So what they did is that they were looking at whether genetic factors have more of an influence on beauty or whether it's external factors.

Randy Schuller (4:03)

Nature or nurture.

Perry Romanowski (4:04)

Exactly. Now, the research was sponsored by Olay, so you can imagine what their conclusions were.

Randy Schuller (4:11)

Maybe some external products might help.

Perry Romanowski (4:14)

So they had 155,000 participants take place in this study, and of those 155,000, they had just under 11,000 participants claimed that they were often told that their skin looked 10 or more years younger than their biological age.

So you see this high quality research going on here. But what they found was that the women who reported that their skin, that they were told their skin looked younger, they almost always used sunscreen, and they also almost always had, or they also had a positive attitudes about themselves. And so if you wear sunscreen and you have a positive attitude about yourself, you're more likely to look younger than if you didn't have those things.