Will meadowfoam seed oil help your face? episode 201

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 201 I'm your host, Perry Romanowski, and with me today is haircare formulation expert and the other half of the Beauty Brains, Valerie George. Hello, Valerie.

Valerie George (0:34)

Hello, Perry, hello, Beauty Brains fans.

Perry Romanowski (0:37)

All right, we got a great show today. On today's episode, we're going to be answering your beauty questions about whether meadow foam seed oil is making skin less itchy. If you can get acne from a rinse-off conditioner, whether Este Lauder still owns Bobbie Brown, what an Indie Beauty brand is, and we're going to talk about what's the deal with oils and hair. But first, let's get some of that inane chit-chat over with that our audience loves so much.

Hello, Valerie, tell us what's going on.

Valerie George (1:12)

Let's talk about something besides the weather. We're both in freezing conditions.

Perry Romanowski (1:18)

Well, for you anyway, not for me, I'm used to it.

Valerie George (1:22)

Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (1:23)

Hey, you know what I did over the weekend? You know how I volunteer at this cat shelter?

Valerie George (1:28)

Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (1:29)

Because I can't have a cat myself because my wife's allergic and such.

Anyway, I volunteer, and then they had this thing called the Catcade where they have arcade games, but then cats are around, so you can go play these arcade games and a cat can be on your lap. It was a blast. I wonder if they have those around other places in the world. They certainly have them here in the city of Chicago.

Valerie George (1:54)

That sounds really cool. I would love to do that with my dogs.

I actually wish I could take my dogs to work. That'd be really fun.

Perry Romanowski (2:02)

You know, I have a friend in Texas, Austin, and people can bring dogs to their work. It seems disruptive to me, but I suppose it's very calm.

Valerie George (2:12)

A lot of places do that nowadays, but I mean, the unfortunate thing is I work in a laboratory and pooches just aren't a good fit for the lab.

Perry Romanowski (2:23)

It's hard to keep those safety goggles on their heads, too.

Valerie George (2:27)

Yeah, my dogs wouldn't go for that.

Perry Romanowski (2:31)

All right, are we ready to get into some beauty science news?

Valerie George (2:35)

We have a big show today. Let's do it.

Perry Romanowski (2:37)

Well, Valerie, the first story that I saw was this story published in Allure, and it was a story about this brand called Sand and Sky. And what caught my eye was that they announced that they have an 11,000 person waiting list for this upcoming new product launch.

Valerie George (3:07)

Wow.

Perry Romanowski (3:08)

Well, yeah, I mean, the two products are a Dreamy Glow Drops and a Super Bounce Mask, and I'm sure it's a perfectly fine serum and mask, but I like that they don't seem to have anything very special about them. I mean, they said there's some berries and emu apple and Kakudu palm.

Valerie George (3:29)

Kakadu.

Perry Romanowski (3:30)

Kakadu?

Valerie George (3:31)

Kakadu plum.

Perry Romanowski (3:34)

Oh, you're familiar with Kakadu?

Valerie George (3:37)

Yes, I am.

Perry Romanowski (3:40)

Or at least with the English language and then how to pronounce words.

Valerie George (3:44)

Yeah.

Perry Romanowski (3:45)

Anyway, so those, to me, those are just kind of claims ingredients. They're probably not responsible for how the product is going to work. But mostly, I wanted to talk about that 11,000 person waiting list and why this is just kind of a marketing gimmick. That doesn't really mean, I think, what the marketers want consumers to think it means.

So what do you think about these product waiting lists? I mean, you hear 11,000 people waiting for a product. That sounds pretty impressive, right?

Valerie George (4:16)

Yeah, I mean, the brand has about 480,000 plus followers to date on Instagram. I don't know anything about this brand, so I can't comment on whether those are all legitimate followers. But 11,000 people waiting for a product to come out is pretty impressive sounding. I mean, it depends if the company just said, hey, are you interested in hearing about a new product, sign up for this email list, or did people really sign up to get special access to the product, or maybe they already pre-ordered it or something. I mean, who knows what that terminology means?