It’s Friday and that means it’s time again for Chic Clicks. Not be confused with Chick Clicks. Or Chick Cliques. or Chicklets. Or even Chik-Filet, for that matter. Nope, it’s just our weekly roundup of the best beauty blogs. So go click, Chicks, and enjoy!
SheFinds tips our hats to Payless this season. Your fall shoes are quite stylish! 

StyleBakery wants you to make a great first impression with one of this season’s supremely stylish coats.

An open neck tunic keeps Girlawhirl from being overwhelmed by what she’s wearing.

Smarter Fashion gave us some more coupon codes for top clothing and accessories stores that will expire soon. Check them out!

The Beauty Brains tell us what’s fishy about Seattle’s latest foot spa bath treatment.

Jamie Wants To Know:  I recently bought a new moisturizer which contains SPF. Is it alright to use this as a night cream as well? Will applying SPF to your skin day and night cause any harm? Or should I just go get myself a night cream?

The Right Brain Says:
Applying an SPF (Sun Protection Factor) cream to you skin at night versus during the day won’t make any difference.  Any cosmetic CAN be irritating if you have very sensitive skin, but if you’ve used the product during the day and it’s ok, you won’t have any problems at night.  At least your face won’t have problem. Your bank account might because SPF products tend to be more expensive!

The Beauty Brain’s Bottom Line:

There’s nothing wrong with applying sunscreen at night but if you invest in a good night cream without SPF, you’ll save some money.

Beth is bemused: Why is it when I go to the salon and have my hair washed, cut & blow-dried, my hair feels so smooth & fantastic? If I purchase the same shampoo, conditioner or other salon products and use them at home — my hair is clean, but it never feels as great as that first time. Is it the fact that the hair has been cut, styled and dried by someone else? Do the shampoo people have some secret ingredient that we never see or feel them put in our hair? Just wondering.

Hair’s the Right Brain’s response:
Ah, the mystery of the salon shampoo.  Rest assured, there is no “secret” ingredient.  The reasons salon products don’t work quite the same at home are a bit more mundane.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first.  Some salon brands would suggest an explanation is because you bought inferior product at a store.  They’ll claim if you didn’t buy at an “officially licensed” salon you may have counterfeit, diverted product.  While this is possible, it’s more likely nonsense as this post on salon product diversion explains.

Assuming you’ve bought the same products used on your hair at the salon, here are 5 plausible reasons why they don’t work the same.

#1 - Stylists are better stylers than you

As suggested in the question, the way your hair looks and feels is mostly dependent on how it’s cut, dried and styled. Your stylist has gone to school, learned & practiced specialized techniques, and does hundreds of heads a month. Naturally, they are going to be able to do things with your hair that you can’t do.

#2 - Stylists have to make hair look good

In addition to being better than you, they’ve also got more incentive to make your hair look good. Giving you a bad look is bad for business. So, they have to develop more patience. When you style your hair and a section doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to, you get frustrated. Eventually, you might give up and throw your hair in a pony-tail. Stylists don’t have this luxury.

#3 - More thorough application of product

When you apply your salon product, you put it in your hand and smear it through your hair. It’s easy to imagine that you miss significant sections just because you can’t see where you’re putting it. Stylists have a better angle and can apply the product more thoroughly. Their position also allows them to shape your hair in ways that you can’t.

#4 - Unknown product combination

Another possibility is that the stylist used a product on your hair that you either didn’t buy or they didn’t tell you about. Maybe they spritzed a leave-in conditioner and spread it through your hair without telling you. Unless you watch and ask them about everything they are using, you may not be getting all the same products.

#5 - You spent money

Finally, no matter what your hair looks like, you’ll be more inclined to believe it looks and feels better when you pay someone to get it done. That’s just human nature. No one wants to feel foolish or ripped-off.  You want to believe.  It’s the same phenomena that makes people believe a $30 salon shampoo is better than a $1 store bought shampoo.  This would be true even if the products were EXACTLY the same in all other ways as this study about pricey products demonstrates.

Beauty Brains bottom line

There are a number of reasons your salon products don’t seem to work as well at home. One sure way to get them to work better is to get yourself a roommate who is also a stylist. It’s worked well for Sarah.

Why do you think your salon products don’t work as well for you?  Leave a comment below and let the rest of the Beauty Brains community know.

Left Brain reports…

This story about a boy who developed permanent scarring from a henna tattoo is an important reminder of the potential dangers this procedure.  According to the report, this 3-year-old boy was allowed to have a henna tattoo in the shape of Bart Simpson while on holiday in Spain. Unfortunately, he had a bad reaction to the ink and may now be left with a permanent scar.

Henna Information

Right Brain had previously written about henna hair dye. And you can find more information in the references for that article.  However, no mention was made of some of the dangers associated with henna tattoos.  The risk of reacting to henna painting is rare but incidences have been increasing.

Researchers reported in the Dermatology Online Journal about Cutaneous reactions to temporary tattoos. In this paper, they presented 6 cases of unfortunate reactions to henna tattoos.  (CAUTION:  There are some unpleasant pictures). The cause suggested is a reaction to “black henna”.

Bad Black Henna

In it’s traditional form, henna dyes give an orange/reddish-brown color.  To get a black color, natural henna is spiked with paraphenylenediamine (PPD).  In addition to providing a wider color range, PPD also increases the speed at which the tattoo develops.  A real henna tattoo can take up to 12 hours to form.  Using black henna, results can be achieved in about 2 hours.  But for some people, permanent scarring is the cost for a quicker tattoo.

Beauty Brains bottom line

If you’re on vacation and want to get a temporary henna tattoo, make sure you avoid “black henna”.  While most people won’t experience a problem, some of you could be scarred with a permanent reminder of your trip.

Gemma speculates: I was wondering if sodium hydroxide was added to face washes for the purpose of pH adjustment only? I am a lab technician and have noticed the very ’slimy’ feel that solutions containing sodium hydroxide tend to adopt. I have also noticed that some
face washes containing the ingredient have the same slimy feel to them which customers could easily mistake for a ‘moisturising effect’. Is it the sodium hydroxide that causes this consistency and what effect does the ingredient have on the skin? Can it dry the skin?

Right Brain Steps In:

It’s nice to hear from our lab technicians out there.  You do great work and are responsible for keeping this industry moving ahead.  A little known fact about the world of science, lab techs do the work, scientists get all the glory.  It hardly seems fair.

Sodium Hydroxide Slime

Your observations about sodium hydroxide on your skin are correct.  It does feel slimy.  However, we don’t recommend you touch it too often.  Dilute solutions can burn skin and concentrated Sodium hydroxide can be nasty stuff.

The reason sodium hydroxide feels slimy is because it is chemically reacting with the fatty acid esters and oils naturally found in your skin.  Essentially, you’re turning bits of your skin into soap.  (The reaction is called saponification).  And as you know, soap is slippery.

But what happens to sodium hydroxide in a face wash?

Facial Wash ingredients

To understand this, it is helpful to examine the ingredients in a face wash.  This Clarisonic face wash provides a good example.  The ingredient list is below.

Clarisonic Refreshing Gel Cleanser

Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Cocamide DEA, Acrylates C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Salix Alba Bark Extract (Willow), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Gel (Aloe Vera), Vitis Vinifera Seed Extract (Grape), Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract (Green Tea), Chamomilla Recutita Flower Extract (Matricaria), Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract (White Tea), Laminaria Digitata Extract (Algae), Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract (Yeast), Arctostaphylos UVA Ursi Leaf Extract (Bearberry), Panthenol (as Vitamin B5), Cyanocobalamin (as Vitamin B12), Ubiquinone, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, PEG 12 Glyceryl Distearate, Sodium Hydroxide, Glucosamine HCl, Glycerin, Urea, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexyl Glycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Fragrance

First, let’s strip away all the ingredients that are just “filler” or put in to support the marketing story.

Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Cocamide DEA, Acrylates C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, PEG 12 Glyceryl Distearate, Sodium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Urea, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexyl Glycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Fragrance

We’re left with

1. Detergents that actually clean the skin
2. Thickening polymers that make it gel
3. Moisturizing ingredients that reduce harshness of the detergents
4. Solvents that dilute the ingredients to make them usable
5. Fragrance to make it smell pretty
6. Preservatives to keep it fresh
7. Adjustment agents to optimize performance.

Sodium Hydroxide falls in the Adjustment Agent category. You see, when dispersed in water the thickening polymer is thin and has low pH somewhere around 2.5 - 3.5.  It only gets thick at a higher pH, say around 5-7.  The detergents help increase the pH, but you often need just a little extra boost to get the right thickness.  This boost comes from sodium hydroxide.

Fortunately, only a small amount is need to increase the pH.  That’s why there isn’t enough of it to react with your skin and make it feel slimy.

The Beauty Brains Bottom line

A solution of Sodium Hydroxide does have the effect of making your skin feel slippery.  However, in a face wash only a small amount is used and it is tied up with other ingredients so it doesn’t react with skin.

Midbrain update…

Here’s a follow-up to a fish bath story featured in a Beauty Science or BS poll from last year.  In that story, we learned that some spas in China were using flesh-eating fish to exfoliate skin.

Seattle Fish Spa Bath

Well, the idea proved too enticing for one nail salon owner in Seattle.  She started selling her own fish spa bath treatments.  For $30 you could soak your feet for 15 minutes in a spa bath filled with tiny, flesh-eating fish.

Customers apparently loved it.  The government however, didn’t.  They shut down the operation when it was deemed “unsanitary and potentially unsafe”.

Alternatives to Fishy Spa Baths

I don’t know if it’s unsanitary or not but it seems a bit strange.  There are more efficient and less animal-involved ways to exfoliate your feet.  For example, you can try Flexitol Foot Scrub, the Revlon Hand and Foot Exfoliator or even an Exfoliating Stone File.  Unfortunately, none of these will feel quite the same as tiny creatures devouring your feet so if that’s what your into, you might want to save your money for a trip to China.

Oh and by the way, now that she can’t offer the service any more, the spa owner said she would take the fish home as pets and sell the spa bath equipment on E-bay.

Any buyers out there?

Anyone else disappointed about not being able to get a fish exfoliating spa bath in the US?

Carol Has A Question: For various personal reasons that I won’t go into here, I’ve got tattoo regret. I’ve heard commercials on the radio for some kind of cream called Wrecking Balm that’s supposed to fade tattoos. Does Wrecking Balm work?

The Brain’s Balmy Reply:

Carol, we’ve heard those same commercials but surprisingly, we haven’t been able to find out much about Wrecking Balm.  Their website provides scant evidence of anything.

But we do have a theory about what this product MIGHT be.

We couldn’t find any official source that mentioned Wrecking Balm. The closest reference we could find was an article on CNN about an experimental cream for tattoo removal. But this cream is still in clinical tests so we don`t think it`s the same product.

We also found resources like Inkbusters, a company that sells a product that they claim will fade tattoos. Their active ingredient is tricholoracetic acid (or TCA) which is used in chemical skin peels. There’s another product called Tat B Gone but there’s no mention of what active ingredient they use.

After doing a little research on TCA, our theory is that Wrecking Balm is a cream based version of this ingredient (but without seeing the product`s ingredient list there`s no way to tell for sure.)

Does Wrecking Balm Work?

Well, we did find a reference from the American Academy of Dermatology that said chemical peeling can remove tattoos in a cost-effective method. But, they made no specific mention of TCA. Most dermatologists seem to recommend laser treatment, maybe because it’s more profitable for them. If we shift into paranoid mode we could make up a story that the evil Academy of Dermatologists is suppressing the truth about the existence of an easy to use tattoo removal cream much in the same way that the Air Force is suppressing the truth about existence of crashed UFO aliens. But to be honest, the Internet has more evidence for the aliens than it does for tattoo creams. Still, this reference seems to indicate the stuff may work.

The Beauty Brains Bottom Line:

Don’t get your hopes up. Most people who have commented back to us say the stuff isn’t worth it. But check with a dermatologist about your options and be sure to ask about chemical peels. It’s just possible that TCA might help. We also suggest contacting a reputable tattoo parlor for their insights on this topic. After all, they’re the experts when it comes to ink!

Felicia Asks A Favor: Hey Beauty Brains! First off, I must say that I love your blog. I still freak out and coo over hair and makeup products that I see and love but now I know what is and isn’t worth buying. Thanks! The latest product I’ve seen is the Adidas Absorbent-Deo Deodorant. I don’t really like the name (slightly awkward to say) but I love the idea behind it. My question is, does it actually do what it claims and what is in this deodorant that absorbes your sweat? Please and thanks for your response.

The Right Brain Thinks This Smells Funny:
Before we start, you should go back and read our previous post on how antiperspirants and deodorants work. Otherwise you might get lost. That’s better. Now, here’s what Adidas says about their product:

BreakThru
24hr Control
Wetness Control Aluminum Free - Cotton Tech™ Absorbs Wetness Exclusively from Adidas - the first deodorant for women to manage perspiration as effectively as an anti-perspirant - 100% aluminum-free and non-staining. With patented* Cotton Tech™ to absorb and evaporate wetness naturally. *Pending

Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Don’t answer that yet. Let’s take a look at the ingredients first.

Adidas Deodorant Ingredients

As with most deodorants, the main ingredients are Propylene Glycol, Water and Sodium Stearate. Sodium Stearate is a type of soap that reacts with the water and the Propylene Glycol (which is kind of like Glycerine) to form a stiff gel-like stick. This gel stick contains tricolosan, an antibacterial agent that stops bacteria from growing in your perspiration.  (Remember, it’s the bacteria that cause body odor, not the sweat by itself. Did you read our earlier post like we told you to!?!)

Is it the Cotton?

The interesting aspect of this product is that it contains Gossypium Herbaceum, or Cotton Powder. According to Adidas the cotton fibers absorb the moisture and help it evaporate. In theory, this makes sense. If you can get rid of the moisture the bacteria have nothing to feed on and therefore your armpits don’t get stinky. But in practical application, we’ve never seen this approach used effectively. Even if the cotton powder does absorb your sweat, it’s just going to hold onto the moisture so the bacteria will still have a place to grow. That could lead to a smelly shirt. While we admit we’re not familiar with the technical details of their patent, we’re skeptical that this approach would really be effective.

The Beauty Brains’ Bottom Line

This Adidas product may be a perfectly fine deodorant but we’d need to have more information before we agree it is a technology breakthrough. Call us science snobs, but if there was a true technology breakthrough in deodorants we’d expect to see that come from one a major AP/DO brand like, Secret, who employs dozens of PHD level scientists. Not a shoe company.

Patricia Poses This One: I am a Chemistry student right now and I’m trying to do a research project on amino acids in shampoos. I’m trying to find out any type of scientific information I can. I stumbled across your website, and I thought it was brilliant. If anyone can point me in the right direction I’m confident you could. I would love any type of information you could offer me. Or if you know a good place I could look. Thank you so much for your time.

The Right Beauty Brain Replies:
If you poke around on our site you’ll find numerous references to amino acids in hair care products. For the most part, these are what we call “fairy tale” ingredients.  They are added just to give the marketing people something to talk about.  No one expects that they will have a significant impact on the performance of the formula.  The surfactants in the products do a great job of cleaning and conditioning hair, but the amino acids don’t directly affect the hair in most cases.  But aminos sound better than chemical names like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.

Amino Acids in Hair Products

There are a couple of notable exceptions, however. Some conditioners use amino acids to neutralize other functional ingredients in the formula.  This reaction creates a salt complex that can affect the feel of the product on hair. Also, amino acids are really just chopped up protein molecules and it has been shown that proteins can be chemically modified to be substantative (or stick) to hair to provide a conditioning effect. In our experience the amount of conditioning delivered by proteins is quite small compared to other conditioning ingredients, but there is a lot of data out there (mostly from the companies that sell proteins) that indicates they work.

Finally, if you REALLY want to learn more about amino acids, proteins, and hair, here’s a great technical source: Clarence Robbins’ The Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair. It’s very expensive (even on Amazon.com) but you could look for it at your local library.

But in the meantime, here are a couple of other sources that you might find helpful:

Chemistry of Hair

Better Hair Through Chemistry

We hope this helps, write back and let us know how your project turns out!

Left Brain laments…

This article about the level of respect given to cosmetic science left me feeling a little blue.  It seems academia doesn’t respect the work that I and my fellow cosmetic scientists do.  Dr. Robert Lochhead (a wonderful man who I’ve met) observes that the most successful cosmetic industry experts are known for work other than cosmetics.

Unfortunately, we work for companies and are not always allowed to publish the great scientific research we do.  We’re stuck with keeping trade secrets and filing the occasional patent.  Sadly, the allure and glamor of the Nobel Prize is out of our reach.

On the other hand, at least we make practical products that people can touch and feel.  At least we create products that make people’s lives better.  At least the public appreciates our products & maybe us!

For you budding young cosmetic scientists out there, don’t give up.  The beauty problems of the world are not solved.  We still need smart people to make better cosmetics.  We need you to help make people look and feel happier.  And someday we may even need someone to take over the mantle of The Beauty Brains.

If you are interested in becoming a cosmetic scientist read this post about being a cosmetic chemist.

I wonder.  Who is the most famous cosmetic chemist that you know?  Does anyone know any?