Do silicones dissolve in your hair?
Kylie asks…I’ve been trying to get rid of dark hair dye for years and found Scott Cornwall and his product Decolour. He claims that if it doesn’t work, the hair may have been plasticized due to the use of heat over 220 deg cel. Episode:
To answer this, I spoke to one of the top experts on silicone chemicals used in hair care. This person has more than 100 patents on this subject, an expert in the development and growth of silicones for personal care. tens if not hundreds of books on this subject. Long story short – this guy knows what he’s talking about. Here’s what he had to say…
The difficulty in answering your question is very vague. Silicones cover a variety of smog compounds that can polymerize, like a tub sealer, and when used on hair can cause hair loss, but I think your audience has the common sense not to put bath caulk on hair. Silicones found in personal care do not work that way. They are liquids not solids and do not grow on hair. In terms of boiling, if at temperatures where there may be hair processing, it does not polymerize. I suspect that the high temperatures for hair treatment are there for a very short time. In short the thesis has no known support.
You may find it interesting to know that nail polishes work this way. The cross-linking catalyst can be heat or UV light
Is it safe to dye your foundation with food coloring?
Sea horseshoes asks… As most people with a yellow undertone in their complexion know, it can really be necessary to find a foundation that matches your skin tone. I found a bunch of blog posts and youtube videos suggesting that mixing foundation with a few drops of food coloring would be a great way to change it up. The portion will be very small; food coloring is quite strong. But I was wondering if this is a habit? It seems to me that it should be, since food coloring is obviously a food grade, but are there other risks that I’m overlooking, since it’s used topically instead of ingested?
It depends on which colors you are talking about. As we mentioned in a previous post, some ingredients are safe to eat but may irritate your skin (eg, cinnamon, peppermint.) The safest thing to do is check to see if the food coloring you want to use is also approved for use in cosmetics. You can do that by looking at the FDA approved color list.
And remember that just because something is safe on the skin doesn’t mean it can be used everywhere. For example, there are many colors that are approved for skin but not for use around the eye.
Lastly, as you said, food coloring is very concentrated so you have to do this carefully. I think this will be VERY difficult to reproduce. Also, if you add too much water-based food coloring to an oil-based base it may affect the stability of the product.
How does “Print Hair” hair color work?
Zenity asks…Do you know about this product called Hairprint? It is a mystery to me how it “restores one’s natural color” as they say.
Hairprint is an interesting product. It comes from a small company in California called The Nature of Hair, LLC. Here’s how they explained the technology:
“Hairprint is not a dye. Think of it as a Hair Healing Program that naturally reverses gray hair to its natural color” “Hairprint creates a process where the natural pigment in your hair called eumelanin is recreated in the hair shaft.”
Hey! That sounds incredible – a natural way to restore hair color without dye. The product itself is relatively simple: it contains Water, baking soda, mucuna pruriens (which is the scientific name for Velvet bean extract), sodium carbonate, carbomer, hydrogen peroxide, diatomaceous earth, manganese gluconate, and ferrous gluconate.
So what’s the deal? To find out, I again looked to an expert in this field, – this time he is a cosmetic chemist who has been specializing in hair dye chemistry for over 30 years. Here’s what he had to say…
As you probably know, the type of pigment that gives hair and skin its color is called melanin. There is a related complex called “dopamine-melanin” which is thought to be the color in brain tissue (gray matter.) Dopamine-melanin can be made by oxidizing L-DOPA which is a precursor to dopamine. Do you have all that?
It turns out that “Velvet Bean” has a high concentration of L-DOPA. It appears that the hydrogen peroxide in the formula may deoxygenate the velvet bean which may create dopamine-melanin which may add some color to the hair.
Ferrous gluconate and manganese gluconate can also create some color (similar to the lead acetate used in the Grecian Formula That is a reaction with sulfur in the hair to create the color.)
The bottom line, according to our experts, is that “this is just another way to restore color to the hair. It must work to some degree, but the price is crazy and I’m sure it doesn’t work like other products.”
How do cleaning products work?
Harper asks…How do shower gels and lotions work? How did he die so soon without taking a bath? For example, St. Tropez has a new self-tanner that you apply to wet skin, wait 3 minutes, then wash off; Jerens has a moisturiser. Are these less effective than other methods and if so, why?
In the shower self-tanning products work in the same way as leave in products – by using DHA to react with skin protein to give a red color. Cleansing products such as these may have higher levels of DHA to compensate for the diluted amount but in both cases the DHA is in contact with the skin long enough for it to react and darken. A leave in product can use a low level that affects the skin for a long time, cleaning products can use a high level that affects the skin for a short time. In this way, cleaning products can be used several times to achieve a “light tan.”
In the shower moisturizers work by suspending a moisturizing agent that doesn’t dissolve in water (Jergens uses mineral oil.) When the lotion is applied to wet skin the emulsion “breaks” and the mineral oil is absorbed into the skin. BTW, if you read the directions, you’ll see that the Jergens product is to be used on wet skin but NOT washed. Some in-shower moisturizers (like Olay) use a similar system that injects moisturizer into the skin during the wash-off process.
As a general rule, cleansing products are not very effective in delivering the active ingredients as a break in products but I have never seen the data for these specific products.
The Honest Company may not be so trustworthy
Link
Boy the class action law firms are really active this year in the beauty business. There was the J&J suit, the Wen suit, the EOS suit and now, ironically, the Honest Company is being sued for dishonesty.
Here is what happened.
A few months ago there was a report published in the Wall Street Journal which suggested that the claim made by the Honest company was false. The company claimed that its liquid laundry detergent, dish soap, and other cleaning products were “sodium lauryl sulfate-free.” In the Wall Street Journal article, they had independent labs test Honest detergents and found high levels of SLS.
The Honest Company insists that it does not mislead consumers. In fact, they say they don’t use SLS, but rather Sodium Cocoyl Sulfate.
It makes sense to explain the difference here. Both SLS and Sodium Cocoyl Sulfate are detergents. It’s complicated but the key components to consider are Lauryl and Cocoyl. Lauryl refers to the part of the molecule with 12 carbon atoms. So, most SLS is a detergent with those 12 carbon atoms. Cocoyl refers to a combination of hydrocarbons of different lengths. It comes from coconut oil. So it will have 10 carbon cleaners, 14 carbon cleaners, 16 carbon cleaners, etc. It just so happens that it mainly contains detergents with 12 carbon atoms. You know, what we pharmacists call Lauryl.
The Honest Company claims to not include any Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in their products. However, they include a combined detergent that contains about 50% sodium laurel sulfate. It can be seen that way on inspection.
This is a classic case of greenwashing. Actually, they use sodium laurel sulfate but they don’t want to put it on their label so they use less refined sodium cocoyl sulfate. They claim SLS is free even though it isn’t. I don’t know how their pharmacists let this one go. Or their legal department for that matter.
We will see what happens with this case.
It’s good to see companies like this called out on their BS.
The dangers of mineral oil in lip products
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Our friend Colin Sanders recently published an article on this subject. He reviewed a paper for the International Journal of Cosmetic Science that addressed the issue of long hydrocarbon chains in lip products.
Remember that mineral oil is just long chains of carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen atoms. It is used in lip products to provide slip and shine and is generally very safe for use in cosmetics as long as it is cleaned properly.
But here’s the problem with lip products: Our bodies aren’t equipped to break down mineral oil like other fats and oils. That means that most of the mineral oil will pass through our bodies (it has actually been used as a laxative) but some will be retained. And research on mice has shown that high intakes of mineral hydrocarbons may have harmful effects on health.
Of course, this is where it gets tricky – there is no evidence that it is harmful to humans but it is better to be safe than sorry so the scientific organization in the EU that looks into this kind of thing has published a new recommendation that says “Cosmetics Europe recommends that only those mineral hydrocarbons be used in mouth and lip products, for which the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) has been identified.” In other words, only use mineral hydrocarbons where there is clear data that it is safe to ingest a certain amount.
As Colin points out, this is almost ado much about nothing BUT the good news is that there are plenty of vegetable oils as an alternative to mineral oil so it should not be a problem for you to find mineral oil free products if you choose.
The tricky part is that this same concern applies to waxes used in lip products and those can be difficult to replace. (Things like microcrystalline wax, ozokerite, ceresine, and paraffin.)
Follow the link to read his original article where he provides references for specific studies.
The Labolts are from the United Arab Emirates says… It’s not every day you find an honest scientist talking about beauty products. If you look past their sense of humor (sorry guys), their podcast can save you tons of $$$.
Dsy325 from Canada he says…These two guys are very experienced in this field. If you’re more of a reader than a listener, their website provides the widest amount of information anyone will need on beauty, makeup, and bath ingredients!
Miss Edgeley from Australia says… Submissive men talk about women’s beauty products 2 stars. It’s really disappointing as there are quite a few guys making fun of women’s beauty websites and recommending the most popular beauty products for women. Pretty boring.
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