Products I refuse to use (as a chemist) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I talk a lot about how you don't actually  need to avoid most of the ingredients and
2. 0:04products that people and apps tell you to avoid.  A lot of you asked me what products you should
3. 0:08actually avoid and what products I avoid.  So that's what we're talking about today:
4. 0:12Products you might want to  avoid and what to use instead.
5. 0:16I'm Michelle, I'm a chemist and I've been  talking about the science behind beauty
6. 0:19products for over 10 years. So I've  tried a ton of products and I have a
7. 0:24ton of opinions about them. Now, a lot of  the products I avoid are personal to me.
8. 0:28They might be fine for you. They might even  work really well. I'm going to explain my
9. 0:32reasoning so that you can decide for your  own situation. I've probably also forgotten
10. 0:37a bunch. So please add suggestions and the  products you personally avoid in the comments.
11. 0:42First, lash serums with prostaglandin analogues.  These are lash serums that are meant to make your
12. 0:47lashes grow longer and thicker, and they have  ingredients in them that work the same way as
13. 0:52Latisse. Basically, the way they work is they  get your lashes to stay in the growth phase
14. 0:56of the hair growth cycle for longer. So they  spend more time growing instead of just sitting
15. 1:01there resting. Now, these work extremely well,  but they do have side effects. So, first off,
16. 1:06they can change your eye color. They make  it look more brown. They can also reduce
17. 1:09the fat around your eyes and make them look a  bit sunken, which makes you look a bit older.
18. 1:14And they can also make the skin around your eyes  quite irritated. Latisse is a drug and all these
19. 1:20ingredients that work like Latisse should also  be drugs. In general, things that work really
20. 1:25well also have more potential side effects. And  I think it's just really crappy of brands to
21. 1:30put these ingredients into lash serums because  people should be warned about these potential
22. 1:35side effects. If it's a product that you buy in,  let's say, Sephora, you are not really expecting
23. 1:40to see that sort of risk. The side effects  might be worth it for some people, but it
24. 1:45really is something that people should be warned  about before they start using it really upfront.
25. 1:50Here is a list of the more common prostaglandin  analogues that you see in lash serums. And there
26. 1:56are also a bunch of lash serums from  really small online stores that don't
27. 2:00have these in the ingredient list. But  I'm really suspicious about whether the
28. 2:05ingredient lists are accurate and they've just  put some of these in there anyway. In general,
29. 2:10it's a lot safer to buy from an established  brand that probably wouldn't get away with
30. 2:14an inaccurate ingredient list. They  can't just sprinkle one of these in
31. 2:17there and hope that no one sees because  they hire a lot of people who know what
32. 2:21they're doing. And they're definitely not just  dropshipping products off Temu or something.
33. 2:26If it's a serum that seems to work a bit too  well without any of these active ingredients,
34. 2:31I would be very, very suspicious. Instead,  I would maybe look for a lash serum that
35. 2:36has peptides in it. These peptides do seem to  work for lash growth, but not quite as well,
36. 2:41but in this case, it is a good thing. These  aren't researched as much, so it is possible
37. 2:46that there are side effects. Either way, I  would just keep an eye out for side effects,
38. 2:50like changes in eye color, and then stop  using it if you do see anything worrying.
39. 2:55Dip nail kits. I feel like this one is more of  a general warning. Almost everyone should be
40. 3:00avoiding these. With longer lasting nail products,  there are really three main types: acrylics, gels,
41. 3:06and dip. These all last longer than nail polish,  which is why people have been getting into these.
42. 3:11And gel and dip are the ones that are easier to  use, so there are more home versions of these.
43. 3:16I've talked about gel nails before and how the  amount of UV involved is extremely low and not
44. 3:21a big risk. But before I really looked into the  science for that video, I thought maybe dip nails
45. 3:26would be a nice safe alternative. Basically, with  dip nails, you paint a liquid onto your nail, and
46. 3:32then you dip it into a colored powder, it hardens,  and then you repeat that a few times to build up
47. 3:37a longer lasting nail coating. It's easier to  apply than acrylic. And unlike gels, you don't
48. 3:42need UV to cure it. The problem with all of these  longwear products is the way they work, the way
49. 3:47they last longer is by doing a chemical reaction  on your nail. The liquid has a polymer that's
50. 3:54chopped up into tiny segments, and they join up  on your nail, and when it joins up, it hardens.
51. 3:59And it turns out the tiny segments before they  join up together - these are really good at
52. 4:04triggering allergies. I'm probably going  to do a longer video later on explaining
53. 4:08how these products work and how they're  different. The key thing to note here is
54. 4:12those tiny segments are different for the  three types of product. With dip nails,
55. 4:16those tiny things are cyanoacrylates.  They cure with water. So in theory,
56. 4:21you have heaps of water in your skin, you have  heaps in your nail. So you don't need to worry
57. 4:25about these small segments hanging around for a  long time and increasing the chance of allergies.
58. 4:30But once I started using the dip, I realized  it is actually way less safe than gel nails
59. 4:36because these cyanoacrylates, the little things,  they do join up with water in the skin. But the
60. 4:42issue is that they are more volatile. That means  they evaporate and they turn into a gas really
61. 4:47easily. So instead of just having to worry about  the monomers, those little things going into your
62. 4:52skin, you actually have to worry about them  traveling through the air and into your lungs.
63. 4:57If you go on to Facebook groups and forums  on dip nails, you'll see lots of people
64. 5:00complaining about dip flu. Basically, this is a  respiratory reaction. Your airways are reacting
65. 5:06to that liquid going through the air. I had to use  some pretty dangerous gases and volatile liquids
66. 5:11during my PhD, so I do have a lot of experience  with handling them. And it is just so difficult
67. 5:16to control this kind of thing without special  equipment like a fume hood. So I was using my
68. 5:20dips in my stove range hood, which is a pretty  powerful range hood. I was wearing an N95. This
69. 5:26is more than what the vast majority of people who  are using dips do. There's no like warnings about
70. 5:31this in the dip instructions, but I could still  feel the fumes getting into my eyes. And I think
71. 5:36I did get some dip flu symptoms. So a couple of  times I was doing dip nails. I felt really tired
72. 5:42and afterwards and my muscles felt kind of achy.  I went to bed early - but with really nice nails.
73. 5:47When I posted about gel allergies on Instagram,  I actually got a message from someone whose
74. 5:52coworker developed an acrylates allergy. And  now she can't go into hardware stores because
75. 5:57of the random acrylates in the air. So instead  of dip nails, if you want something at home,
76. 6:01I would get a gel kit from a reputable brand.  That is if you are coordinated enough to color
77. 6:07inside the lines and not get it all over your  skin. Alternatively, go to a good nail tech and
78. 6:12get acrylics or gel nails done because they  should know what precautions to take to cut
79. 6:16down the risk of allergy or just use nail polish.  Nail polish overall is just so much lower risk.
80. 6:23Burst gel removers. This is another one that I  think pretty much everyone should avoid. These
81. 6:28are mostly products that you buy online that get  gel off your nails really quickly. With gels,
82. 6:33the way you're meant to take them off is  by soaking in acetone for about 15 minutes
83. 6:38until the gel gets really soft and you can  scrape it off with barely any effort. Now,
84. 6:4215 minutes is a pretty long time when you're just  hanging there and you can't use your hands. So,
85. 6:47a lot of people see these burst gel removers and  it seems like a really nice shortcut. The problem
86. 6:52is the reason they work so well is that they have  a solvent that is much stronger than acetone. It's
87. 6:58called dichloromethane or methylene chloride.  It's used in some paint strippers. I actually
88. 7:03used this quite a lot in the lab because  it is really good at dissolving things,
89. 7:06which is why it works so well, but it is  a lot more toxic than acetone. I mean,
90. 7:11acetone is really non-toxic. It's produced  inside your body when you burn fats for
91. 7:15energy. It's that sweet smell that people get  in their breath when they're on a keto diet.
92. 7:19Dichloromethane is toxic. If you're exposed to too  much, it's likely to cause cancer. It is similar
93. 7:24to chloroform. And again, this is something that's  okay when you use it in the lab with precautions
94. 7:29because you reduce the risk. You don't get exposed  to as much. In this case, if you're soaking your
95. 7:35fingers in it, that is a very different level  of exposure. Instead of using these, I'm sorry,
96. 7:40but acetone soaks are the best removal method.  So, you can speed it up by filing off the top
97. 7:45layers first if you are really careful not to  file the actual nail. You can also use heat to
98. 7:50speed it up. So, you can put a little ziplock  bag of acetone in a bowl of microwaved like raw
99. 7:55rice or you can use these little finger things  where you can fill the bottom with hot water.
100. 8:00Products from websites like Temu, AliExpress,  Shein, basically websites where you're buying
101. 8:05products online, usually from a different country,  and there isn't much responsibility going on.
102. 8:10Okay, so the regulations in China are good, but  only for domestic products. These are products
103. 8:15that are sold inside China. And it's the same  for most developed countries where there is
104. 8:19decent consumer protections. If it's produced  and sold inside the one country, the products
105. 8:24will be of a certain standard. If it's dangerous,  then regulators will act. They might take a while
106. 8:30if they're underfunded, but you'll see things  like recalls and fines. But if you have products
107. 8:34that are shipped from one country to another, then  regulations generally don't cover these at either
108. 8:40end. So, there is a lot more of a risk that the  products aren't at the standard that you're used
109. 8:45to. They might not have accurate ingredient  lists. They might contain drug ingredients
110. 8:49that do work really well, but they have risks  and side effects that you weren't expecting.
111. 8:54They might have contaminants or dangerous  ingredients that do not meet the regulations
112. 8:58in either country. For example, South Korean  regulators found that nail polish from Shein
113. 9:02had high levels of dioxin and methanol, which  are both toxic. Also, those burst gel removers
114. 9:08are mostly from places like Shein. I think it is  still worth being careful with products that are
115. 9:12sold in a well-regulated marketplace if they're  a bit too cheap or they're a bit too good to be
116. 9:17true. Even with some of the bigger stores, they  seem to get a lot of their products dropshipped
117. 9:21from places like AliBaba. And I'm not sure  they've always done their due diligence on them.
118. 9:26There's been some sus products from Kmart in  Australia. For example, there was a $6 cleansing
119. 9:31balm that was discounted to $2 that messed up  someone's eyes. And even if the product says
120. 9:37to avoid your eye area, a product that goes  on your face, that should be formulated to
121. 9:42make sure it doesn't have that sort of reaction.  There's been other products where, in my opinion,
122. 9:47the ingredient list couldn't be accurate, like  this is supposedly 1% retinol. Retinol is yellow
123. 9:54and oil soluble. I just don't see how any retinol  serum would look like water. But I would just be
124. 10:00really cautious with super budget products  if the brand doesn't have a solid history.
125. 10:04I do buy a lot of products from Kmart. There's  actually a bunch of things I buy off AliExpress
126. 10:09and then a bit later I see them in Kmart,  but actually cheaper. This mini shelf is
127. 10:13from Kmart. I'm hoping Kmart has a light box  because this has really died after that expert
128. 10:18video. I would just be a lot more careful with  products that I put on my skin or near my eyes.
129. 10:24Soap based cleansers. These are cleansers  that use traditional soap molecules. Soap is
130. 10:29a technical chemistry term. It doesn't mean just  any cleanser. It specifically means surfactants
131. 10:34which are the cleaning ingredients that are made  from fats and oils and they are reactive with a
132. 10:39strong alkali. Basically is what you think of  when you have a traditional soap. They have
133. 10:44something called a carboxylic acid on the end and  they have a zigzag structure for the rest. And
134. 10:48the thing about this is number one, it is really  narrow and skinny. And number two, the carboxylic
135. 10:55acid part only makes it work at high pH. If  it's at a low pH, then it just simply doesn't
136. 11:00clean properly. Our skin is naturally acidic,  which is low pH. So cleansers that are based
137. 11:05on soap will disturb it more. And if you have a  high concentration of these skinny surfactants,
138. 11:11one of the reasons your skin ends up getting  irritated a lot after cleansing is because
139. 11:15surfactants can stain your skin barrier and  disrupt it. So these skinny soaps, they are really
140. 11:22good at doing that. They can burrow in there  and mess it up long after you finish rinsing.
141. 11:26Now, a lot of people are fine with soaps if  their skin isn't that sensitive. Usually body
142. 11:31skin has less issues than face skin, for  example. But if you do have skin issues,
143. 11:36this can be too much for you. It is for my skin.  So if I see a cleanser that has some of these
144. 11:42near the top of the ingredients list, I know I  will probably have a bad time with it. Again,
145. 11:47you might not have a problem with this, but  if your skin does feel tight after cleansing,
146. 11:51if your skin is oily but dehydrated, like it feels  like you have a whole bunch of oil sitting on a
147. 11:56piece of tight plastic, I would really recommend  trying a different cleanser that has a lower pH
148. 12:01and is gentle. I found that getting a good  cleansing routine actually made the biggest
149. 12:06difference to dealing with my oily skin. Like,  I know we think of cleanser as something that
150. 12:11just goes down the drain and doesn't matter,  but it does actually matter. I actually talk
151. 12:16about this in the cleansing chapter of my Basic  Skincare ebook. Check it out if you're interested.
152. 12:22Tinted sunscreens from European brands. I really  tried to give these a fair go. European sunscreens
153. 12:29usually only have like one or two tinted shades  and every time I do a big European sunscreen haul,
154. 12:35I end up buying a few tinted sunscreens because  I don't know, I'm a silly optimist. That was
155. 12:41a mistake. They have all been awful. And some  of these are from really big brands. I'm sure
156. 12:46they worked out the color that sells the best  with a whole bunch of market research. I'm
157. 12:50guessing they're made for maybe white Europeans  in summer after they've gotten a pretty intense
158. 12:55tan. It is just way too pink and orange and  dark for my skin. With Australian sunscreens,
159. 13:01it's usually a bit better. Maybe because  we wear sunscreen for more of the year
160. 13:04and that super intense tan look isn't that  popular. So, if there's two or three shades,
161. 13:10the light shade is usually pretty wearable  for me. The Cancer Council BB cream in the
162. 13:15light tint is basically perfect for my  skin even if I apply the full amount.
163. 13:19I see people recommend tinted sunscreens a  lot if you're trying to fade pigment because
164. 13:23the iron oxide pigments that give the tint, those  will block blue light. Blue light is only really
165. 13:29a problem if it's coming from the sun because  it's so intense. From a screen, it's just not
166. 13:33bright enough to really make a difference unless  you have a medical condition. And genetically,
167. 13:38I am a pigment producing beast. I actually  need to go get laser again for my sunspots
168. 13:42because there are limits to what skincare can  do. But based on the literature I've seen,
169. 13:47it looks like foundation over sunscreen  should block out blue light pretty well
170. 13:51as well. It's just you do need to layer two  products. There's a bit more of a chance of
171. 13:55them interacting and maybe not working quite  as well. So, I just do that instead. Although,
172. 14:01I'm sure I will optimistically buy more European  tinted sunscreens and then be really disappointed.
173. 14:07This one is definitely very personal. I do  not use mascara. I have trichotillomania,
174. 14:13which is where I tug on my lashes, and it's  especially bad when I'm stressed. Apparently,
175. 14:17it is a pretty common thing for people with  ADHD. I am also super super shortsighted,
176. 14:23so I've been using ortho K lenses since I was  about 14. These are hard contact lenses that
177. 14:28you wear at night and they squish your corneas  in, sort of like braces. So that means I don't
178. 14:33have to use glasses or contact lenses during the  day and I can still see. I'm not like stumbling
179. 14:38around into things, which does happen sometimes  when I forget to put in my contacts. With those,
180. 14:44if you get an eyelash under there, it is  excruciatingly painful. So it's become a bit
181. 14:49of a habit to also check for loose lashes. So my  lashes are quite sparse. Also, genetically, they
182. 14:55were always going to be sparse anyway. And if I  have any mascara on them, it just reminds me that
183. 15:00they are there. And that just makes it all worse.  There are some studies that found that if you
184. 15:04don't remove your mascara properly, it can make  your eyes feel dry and gritty. And my eyes already
185. 15:10feel gritty with the ortho-K lenses. So that  was another reason I gave up on using mascara.
186. 15:15I used it for a solid few years. On special  occasions, I use fake lashes. And I actually used
187. 15:21to wear them for my YouTube videos when I first  started, but that was just way too much effort.
188. 15:26I have had some comments from people saying they  can't watch my videos. It bothers them too much
189. 15:31to see me with my natural lashes. And I'm sorry,  but I really hate spending a lot of time getting
190. 15:37ready for videos. It means I have less time to  research and make the videos. And I just have
191. 15:42a really long to-do list. And I guess it also  especially frustrates me because male science
192. 15:48communicators can just wake up, make sure they're  wearing a cleanish shirt, smoosh their hair a bit,
193. 15:54and then just start filming. I am just so jealous  of that. Like people do not feel as much of a
194. 16:00right to comment on men's appearances on the  internet. I have female science communicator
195. 16:05friends who have gotten braces. They get  asked if they're pregnant all the time.
196. 16:09One of them is actually worried about  cutting her hair in case her audience
197. 16:12gets upset about it. And she is not a beauty  person. She is a general science person.
198. 16:17And it just really pisses me off because  it is an extra female tax. And that's on
199. 16:22top of all the other stuff as well. I dug into  the research around gender and online science
200. 16:27communication a while back for a talk and it was  pretty depressing. It's actually worse than the
201. 16:33gender gap when it comes to science communicators  on traditional media like TV. For that talk,
202. 16:38I also went through one of those lists of top 150  YouTube channels in science and tech and I counted
203. 16:44how many were hosted by a woman who was showing  her face on screen. It was six out of 150. So,
204. 16:50we have to spend all this time and energy on our  appearance so that we can go on camera and then
205. 16:55have people focus on what we're talking about  and not just have all these comments about our
206. 17:00appearance. And that just makes the gap even  bigger because it's like an hour each time
207. 17:05that really adds up. It is time that we could  have spent doing research or writing a script.
208. 17:09And I know I have less of a right to complain  because I am talking about beauty. In the beauty
209. 17:14space, people are going to judge you on your  appearance. I'm still going to complain. It's
210. 17:18also why I don't usually leave my hair out and  get it all done up for videos. I used to put
211. 17:23so much effort in and I just stopped caring.  Like, if people can't trust my information on
212. 17:29hair science because I didn't spend an extra half  hour styling it. Some of the best hair scientists
213. 17:34are men who are bold. Like, this just should  not be my problem. There are already people
214. 17:39who won't be receptive to what I say because  I'm Asian, I'm female, I wear makeup, so they
215. 17:43can't take me seriously. That sort of stuff.  I'm sure the information will eventually get
216. 17:48shared by someone who has an appearance that they  are more receptive to. That turned into a rant,
217. 17:52but that's convenient because I'm going to  do another rant. Products with bad packaging.
218. 17:57This is something that you don't really notice  when it's good, but you really, really notice it
219. 18:02when it's bad. So, some examples, I've had really  liquidy products that come out of a squeeze tube
220. 18:07with a hole that is too big and it just leaks  all over your hand. or it builds up pressure
221. 18:11inside and even though it's got a small hole, it  just like squirts out when you take the cap off.
222. 18:16There's also pump bottles where the product is too  thick to come out of the pump properly. You have
223. 18:20to like really push it down really hard. I've also  come across a lot of body washes and shampoos like
224. 18:26this. Sometimes I think it's like a non-Newtonian  fluid. That's like oobleck. That's like the slime
225. 18:32where when you stir it, it really resists you, but  then when you leave it, it goes runny again. Also,
226. 18:37tubes where the hole is really small and you have  to use a ton of pressure to get it out. I see this
227. 18:42all the time with cleansers. And I mean, you need  a decent amount of cleanser. And then also tubes
228. 18:47where the hole is too big and so way too much  of the product comes out. This is why I usually
229. 18:52really don't like aluminium tubes. Sometimes I  will squeeze too hard and it turns out that was
230. 18:575 days worth of pressure and by the time it's all  coming out onto my hand, it's too late to change.
231. 19:03I mean, it is probably partly a skill issue,  but I think it can't just be my skill issue.
232. 19:08I had this problem with Finacea a while back. I  ended up using too much product because I mean,
233. 19:13it was coming out and I wasn't going to waste  it. And that destroyed my skin barrier for like
234. 19:17a good 3 weeks. But basically, the problem is  products should be formulated to come out of
235. 19:23particular types of packaging in a way that is  user friendly. And a big part of this problem
236. 19:28is in product development. Sometimes brands  don't decide on their packaging until the
237. 19:33formula is finalized and then they don't test  the two together and they've already bought
238. 19:37all the packaging. Also, a lot of formulators  don't actually use beauty products that much.
239. 19:43This is much less of a problem now, but there  are still a lot of formulators who didn't
240. 19:48go into cosmetic formulation because they were  actually passionate about it. It's just a job. So,
241. 19:53they're not really approaching formulation like  someone who actually will use that product.
242. 19:58It's also happening more now because  of supply chain issues. Sometimes the
243. 20:02packaging has to change unexpectedly. And  it can be a really subtle change that makes
244. 20:06a big difference when you're using it.  Like the inside of the pump might get
245. 20:10slightly narrower and that makes a massive  difference to how hard you have to press.
246. 20:14I usually try to make these products work. A  lot of the time I end up unscrewing the pumps
247. 20:18and just pouring the product into my hand.  But most of the time I give it away. I get
248. 20:23way more products than I can ever use because  I am a beauty influencer. So, it's pretty rare
249. 20:28that I like a product enough to persevere with  bad packaging. It is just frustrating to use.
250. 20:34If you have this problem and you still want to  use the product, you can try transferring the
251. 20:38product to different packaging. But, you do run  the risk of incompatibility, like the product
252. 20:42might start dissolving the new packaging, or you  might expose it to a lot of spores in the air when
253. 20:47you're transferring it and it goes off faster. So,  if you decide to do that, just make sure you keep
254. 20:52an eye on the product. Make sure there's no sudden  changes that indicate something has gone wrong.
255. 20:57I hope you learned something new, or at  least you enjoyed listening to me rant
256. 21:00about the products I avoid. Let me know what  products you avoid in the comments. Like and
257. 21:04subscribe for more beauty science. If you want  more product reviews, check out this playlist.