In a study that’s sure to be controversial, the journal Psychological Science reports (via Science Daily) that women may be wasting billions of dollars every year on perfume because the natural odor may be more attractive to men.

Periodic perfumery

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that male testosterone levels can be  effected by odor signals from females, especially during ovulation. The researchers had male volunteers sniff tee shirts worn by women in different phases of their menstrual cycles. The amount of testosterone in the men’s saliva was then measured. The results showed that guys who smelled the shirts of ovulating women had more testosterone in their spit. Even more interesting, these guys rated the odor of the shirts worn by ovulating women as more pleasant. The researchers speculate that this biological reaction may be driven by some kind of mating behavior. Does this mean you shouldn’t wear perfume during your period?

Melissa’s question…From what I understand, nails, like hair, are dead cells. Except for the cuticles. I asked a manicurist once and she told me OPI Nail Envy works because it has vitamins in it. This makes no sense to me because, even if it does have vitamins on it, how would putting vitamins on a dead cell, make any difference?

The Left Brain’s answer:
Yes, vitamins in nail products = Marketing BS.

Vitamin vitriol

However, it is worth noting that oil soluble vitamins like Vitamin E & A could help keep the nails less brittle because they would have a plasticizing effect. However, this would be true of many oils.

And, as Dano pointed out in our Forum, Dano “nails are made up of keratinized cells – dead cells jam-packed full of hard keratin protein. The same thing in the dead surface skin cells that allows them to be protective and help keep bad things out of us and good things in us. We can’t put a topical cream containing vitamins on our nails, and actually have it sink down to the cells lower down the nail, or even under the nail bed, just like we can’t spread food on our skin and get our nutrients that way.” (In the Forum thread you’ll also see Melissa’s hilarious comment about a Clinique sales person telling her to buy a certain foundation because it had “more technology.” Funny stuff!)

What do YOU think? Do you buy beauty products with vitamins because you think they’re better for your skin and hair? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Today’s post is a shout out for anyone looking for a good Valentines Day present for their beauty-obsessed, science-geeky gal pals.

Flowers and candy are always nice on Valentines Day, but, being chemists, the Beauty Brains also like presents that combine two of our favorite hobbies (beauty science and kissing.) Like this “Make Your Own Lip Balm Kit!”

It’s got everything you need to build your own lip lock laboratory of love – including skin-softening emollients, yummy flavors, and other ingredients that we talked about in our post on how lip gloss works.

Have you tried any DIY cosmetic kits? Leave a comment and share with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Lux would like to learn…What is the benefit to using an ionic hair dryer or a ceramic hair dryer? I’ve heard that you can blow dry more quickly by using an ionic or ceramic dryer. Is this true? How does it work?

The Right Brain accommodates:
The quick answer is that “ionic” doesn’t mean anything in terms of speed of hair drying. Ionic refers to the charged components that a chemical can be broken down to. For example, when table salt (sodium chloride) dissolves in water you get sodium ions and chloride ions. Ions can also be released under conditions of high temperature or high energy. But even if your blow dryer did bombard your hair with ions, those charged particles wouldn’t have any effect on how long it takes your hair to dry.

Ceramic dryers (meaning dryers with a ceramic heating element) can heat up faster and more evenly than some other types, so maybe your hair will dry a little quicker because of that. But that’s only because you spend less time waiting for the dryer to warm up. And that’s not very much time!

The Beauty Brains bottom line

We haven’t seen any data to show that ionic hair drying appliances are better than any other kind. But ceramic dryers might offer you a faster, more consistent heat source. If any of our Beauty Brainiacs (as we affectionately refer to our readers) have experience with ionic or ceramic dryers, please let us know.

(BTW, is it my imagination or is the woman in this picture having just a little too much fun with that hair dryer device?)

Pam Ponders…I have a persistent back acne problem and my dermatologist recommended Clindamycin solution and Ketoderm cream to treat it. Do they really work? How? (By the way my back acne has not improved at all).