The Beauty Brains are linking and hopefully you’re loving it! All our questions this month come from other beauty bloggers, like Jenn of Literature Couture. Check out her creative character makeup tutorials!

Jenn asks…I’m loving the new Sally Hansen Nail Effects, but I’m have two questions about them. One, how exactly does the company manage to use real nail polish that isn’t dried and crumbly by the time I open the package? Two, is there a way for me to make my own strips to avoid the hassle of manicuring my non-dominant hand?

The Right Brain responds:

Regular nail polishes are a mix of film forming agents, adhesive polymers, and colorants all dissolved in a solvent cocktail (usually ethyl and butyl acetate with a dash of isopropyl alcohol.) To “stripify” the polish, Sally Hansen’s Nail Effects use a formula that’s a little more plastic-y than a regular nail polish. It looks like they’ve applied the polish to flexible substrate (polyethylene terephthalate) and dried off all the solvent. The result is a strip of nail polish that remains flexible but still sticky enough to adhere to your nail.

Can you DIY nail effects?

Sure, it’s actually quite simple. First, get an advanced degree in organic chemistry. Then, gain access to a mixture of over 2 dozen flammable chemicals and the associated equipment you’ll need to mix them properly, then…ok, I guess it isn’t quite so easy. This chemistry is quite complex and even the most accomplished DIY formulator would have problems doing this at home. Looks like you’re stuck with Sally’s strips for now.

Sally Hansen Nail Effects Ingredients

NITROCELLULOSE, POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE, ADIPIC ACID/NEOPENTYL GLYCOL/TRIMELLITIC ANHYDRIDE COPOLYMER, BIS(GLYCIDOXYPHENYL)PROPANE/BISAMINOMETHYLNORBORNANE COPOLYMER, ACETYL TRIBUTYL CITRATE, TRIPHENYL PHOSPHATE, ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL, BUTYL ACETATE, CALCIUM ALUMINUM BOROSILICATE, POLYVINYL BUTYRAL, ACRYLATES COPOLYMER, STEARALKONIUM BENTONITE, SHELLAC CERA/SHELLAC WAX/CIRA DE LAQUE, DIHYDROXYETHYL COCAMINE OXIDE, BENZOPHENONE-3, SILICA, TIN OXIDE, [May Contain/Peut Contenir/+/-:MICA, TITANIUM DIOXIDE (CI 77891), IRON OXIDES (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), D&C RED NO. 6 BARIUM LAKE (CI 15850), D&C RED NO. 7 CALCIUM LAKE (CI 15850), FD&C BLUE NO. 1 ALUMINUM LAKE (CI 42090), FD&C YELLOW NO. 5 ALUMINUM LAKE (CI 19140), D&C YELLOW NO. 10 ALUMINUM LAKE (CI 47005), D&C ORANGE NO. 5 (CI 45370), D&C YELLOW NO. 11 (CI 47000), D&C RED NO. 22 (CI 45380), D&C RED NO. 28 (CI 45410), ULTRAMARINES (CI 77007), FERRIC AMMONIUM FERROCYANIDE (CI 77510), ALUMINUM POWDER (CI 77000)].

Image credit: Sally Hansen

If you’d like to try being a “stripper” you can buy Nail Effects with the Amazon link below. Your purchase will help support the Beauty Brains and for that we thank you kindly.

Sarahb asks…Is there a place that i can view a list of ingredients in hair products that could dry out the hair?

The Left Brain replies:
I’ve never seen a comprehensive list of which ingredients could dry out hair.  It would be very difficult to create an accurate list because the effect of ingredients on hair partially depends on the formulas the ingredients are delivered from.

Ingredient effect depends on context

For example, in the Forum we recently discussed a hair conditioning mask that contains a relatively high level of Lauramide MEA, a surfactant. Lauramide MEA  would typically not dry out hair because it’s most commonly used in lower amounts in shampoos to boost foam and viscosity.  But if left on the hair in mask form it could cause drying.

Similarly a little alcohol is fine on your hair from an aerosolized product like a hairspray because the droplets are very small and will evaporate quickly. But you wouldn’t want alcohol in a leave-in conditioner where it could saturate your hair and scalp  and potentially cause dryness. (I’m talking about ethanol, not cetyl or stearyl alcohol)

The Beauty Brains bottom line

You have to look at each ingredient in the context of the formula it is in to understand what the ingredient function it serves and whether or not it will dry out your hair.

Image credit: Thespokesman.com

QM’s query…The boyfriend and I were watching tv and there was an ad about a drugstore-brand deodorant that touted “3-day efficiency”.
Me : “3-day efficiency ? Does it means that you’re supposed to go 3 days without washing your armpits ? Ewwww !”
Him : “Well, deodorant crawls into the sweat thingies on your skin and block odors from inside. So it can be efficient for 3 days even if you wash the skin in between”.

(OK, none of us are cosmetic scientists, as you can guess from all these technical terms) Which one of us is right ? I thought that OTC skin products can’t legally seep into the skin, but maybe it’s different for deodorants and the like.

The Right Brain responds: 

First a question: are you and your main squeeze talking about deodorants or antiperspirants? Here’s why it matters:

APD vs Deo for B.O.

Deodorants just stop odor (by covering up with fragrance and by killing odor-producing bacteria.) APs prevent you from sweating (or by at least reduct the amount of sweat) and less sweat = less odor because the actual stink is caused by bacteria munching on fatty acids that are contained in your sweat. Since your boyfriend referenced that the product “crawls into the sweat thingies,” I’m assuming that your asking about the “plugging” kind of products so here’s the deal:

Antiperspirants plug your pits

The aluminum salts in APs migrate inside your sweat ducts where they react with moisture to form Gelatinous Little Plugs. (That sounds like the name of a band but it’s not. As far as I know.)  These plugs prevent sweat from soaking your armpits and therefore keep you relatively stink-free.  If you stop using an antiperspirant it takes a few days for the sweat glands to clear themselves of all these petite plugs, which is why the sweat-reduction effect can last last for a few days – even is you shower!

This phenomenon is not unknown to advertisers: I remember seeing ads for Mitchum brand antiperspirant that claimed it was “so effective you can skip a day.”  I’m pretty sure that claim was based on the sweat gland retention of gelatinous aluminum salt plugs. Anyway, what does all this mean? Your boyfriend is right! What did he win?

PS: APs ARE over the counter drugs because they have a physiological effect on skin. Cosmetics can’t affect body function (according to US law, at least.)

Image credit: graphic-design.tjs-labs.com

CJ3…I love the Shea Moisture line, and the Organic Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo. The other day as I was shampooing my hair, I decided to look at the back of the bottle at the ingredients and I noticed a few things were missing. I could care less if there are silicones and parabens in my hair products, my main concern is do they work. But I do prefer that a company be honest about what’s in their products. The shampoo is thick with a pearlized sheen and a strong floral fragrance. But when I look at the ingredients, I don’t see a thickener/Pearlizer, fragrance, or a preservative. Is it possible to have a shampoo be thickened by Shea Butter only? Is it possible for a shampoo to have a pearl sheen and floral scent from extracts? Is Vitamin E enough of a preservative for a shampoo? I heard Vitamin E was an antioxidant and not a preservative at all. I’ve had the shampoo for almost a year now and it hasn’t gone bad yet (or at least I don’t think it has… the scent is so strong, it could be masking any rancid smell).

The Right Brain responds:

Here are the ingredients from the back of the bottle, as provided by CJ3:

Shea Moisture shampoo ingredients

Deionized Water , Decyl Glucoside (Sugar Beets), African Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, Argan Oil, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5), Rosemary Extract, Sea Kelp Extract, Vitamin E, Lonicera Caprifolium Flower Extract (Honeysuckle), Lonicera Japonica Flower Extract (Japanese Honeysuckle)

I loved CJ3′s analysis of these ingredients and I agree that it seems like some items are missing. I checked a few websites (like Target and Walgreens) to see if I could find a more complete listing but I could only find the the same ingredients that you mentioned.

The missing pieces?

Based on our formulation knowledge here’s what we think could be missing from this ingredient list:

Scent: The floral fragrance could be coming from the flower extracts. Technically it should still list “fragrance” as an ingredient, but we’ll give them a pass on this one.

What should be listed: “Fragrance.”

Thickener: Decyl glucoside is a mild detergent but by itself it doesn’t build viscosity very well. To create a thick product it needs to be combined with another salt -responsive surfactant or a polymeric thickener of some sort.

What should be listed: Cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium chloride (or something similar)

Appearance: As you pointed out the product has a rich pearl. It also has a golden color. While a high enough concentration of shea butter could theoretically provide the color, it would not provide a pearlescent effect.

What should be listed: Glycol distearate, FDC yellow

Safety: Surprisingly, and most disturbingly, there is no preservative cited and I don’t see anything in these ingredients that could prevent microbial growth.

What you should be listed: DMDM hydantoin, parabens, etc.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

We’d like to give companies the benefit of the doubt, but it’s tough in this case because the missing ingredients seem so obvious. If the fine folks at Shea would like to contact us with additional information, we’d be glad to update this post.

image credit: hotelmarketingstrategies.com

Does it bug you when companies don’t list all their ingredients for you? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Nouveau Cheap says that Macadamia Natural Oil Healing Oil Treatment makes her hair soft and shiny. But what makes this nut cracker so sweet? Please take a moment to savor that clever Christmas pun; then, let’s look at the label!

Ingredients

Dimethicone, Cyclomethicone
Silicones that smooth hair and make it shiny. Dimethicone is the CLASSIC hair shine enhancer and it’s mixed with Cyclomethicone to make it more spreadable. The Cyclomethicone evaporates leaving behind a light coating of dimethicone. These are the “work horse” ingredients that make deliver the treatment benefits of this product.

Tocopheryl Acetate
This is Vitamin E. It can have a lubricating effect on hair but it’s likely that it’s used at very low levels here. It might be added to help protect the natural oils from oxidizing.

Macadamia Temifolia Seed Oil
The product is named after this ingredient yet it appears after Tocopheryl Acetate which is typically used at very low levels. I’d guess that there’s less than 1% of this oil in this formula which, again, makes it likely that the silicones are really responsible for  the product’s smoothing and softening effect.

Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil
Argan oil is the darling of the cosmetic industry at the moment. Does it do anything in this formula? See also Macadamia oil. 

Parfum/Fragrance
Supposedly this product smells “divine.”

Benzyl Salicylate, Hexylcinnamal, Butylphenyl Methypropional, Coumarin, Linalool, Limonene
Allergens that are present in trace amounts in the fragrance. These must be listed by law.

Image credit: Hawaiian Sun