The Beauty Brains - Podcast Rankings and reviews

this is a great show to gather real information about skin & hair care ingredients and how they work (or don’t work) in a wide assortment of profucts. the show isn’t filled with useless details regarding trends and there is little to no pushing of brands. it’s quite the opposite. if you like primping, but you don’t appreciate being played like a fool when you go down the shampoo aisle, then this is the show for you. at times the hosts’ attempt at playful banter is cringey but it’s easy to forgive in exchange for niche-knowledge that is otherwise pretty hard to come by

Perry and Valerie provide great insights into how different cosmetics products work and the chemistry underlying them. Perry and Valerie also describe all the ways that marketers try to convince people to buy products that don’t actually work (they lack evidential proof of efficacy). Hence I am a bit depressed about how much of the industry is marketing or placebo effect, rather than ingenuity from raw material chemists and formulation chemists. Nonetheless this podcast (and the accompanying blog and the book) are great sources of technical knowledge of the cosmetics industry. Also chit chat and kittens.

Perry may know the science, but he has no experience using beauty products himself. (not even moisturizer) It might benefit some listeners having everything explained to him, but this makes me question him being posited as an expert, his lab experience and science degree notwithstanding. I think he should gain some first-hand experience using the products he’s expounding on in order to credential himself and as a sign of respect to the listeners.

I like the format in which they answer listeners’ questions. It’s great to understand a bit more the science and merketing behind beauty products.