For those of you with young daughters might be interested to learn that tween aged girls (8-12 years) are using more beauty products while teens (13-17) and young women (18-24) are reducing their use of products.

According to Cosmetic Design mascara is now used by 18 percent of tween girls as compared to 10 percent in 2007. Similarly the use of eyeliner has gone from 9 to 15 percent. The study says that tweens regularly use an average of 4.5 different beauty products. (Although that number sounds kind of low to me!)

What do YOU think? Why would younger girls be using more eye makeup while teens are using less?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Did you know that wearing eye liner can actually make you healthier. Well, it could if  you had lived in ancient Egypt.

Love for lead

Scientists have long known that ancient Egyptians used lead based compounds in their cosmetics but they weren’t aware of the long term health risks associated with lead poisoning (such as brain damage and miscarriages.)  But now, according to ScienceNow, new research hints that their love of lead may have actually prevented some eye diseases.

The article describes how chemists working at the Louvre Museum in Paris found a synthetic lead salt in the museum’s collection of Egyptian cosmetic artifacts.  This salt is not found in nature which means that ancient Egyptians had to make it. But why? The answer might lie in ancient manuscripts that say they used lead salts to treat both eye ailments and certain skin conditions.

With further research, the researchers found that similar lead compounds could trigger skin cells to release hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide, and other compounds that help the body’s immune system. You can read the entire article to understand how scientists are interpreting these results, but there does seem to be a reasonable hypothesis that the Egyptians could have used lead eye makeup to treat or prevent disease.

How, you ask, could such an ancient culture have known about such advanced medical technology? The Right Brain would tell you it’s because they were visited by space aliens. But that’s what you get for watching Fringe.

Killingspree questions…How the hell is Brenda Christian’s Universal Brow Definer supposed to work? Is there any science behind this?

The Left Brain raises an eyebrow:

One or the maxims of the Beauty Brains is that “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.” It looks to me like the Universal Brow Definer fits that description.

Background on Universal Brow Definer

This product is an eyebrow colorant in pencil form and consists of  waxes, oils, fatty alcohols, talc, and iron oxide colorants. (The full ingredient list is available on their website.)  These are standard ingredients commonly used in similar products, however, the manufacturer makes several claims about this product that are rather incredulous.

Brenda Christian claims

Brenda makes the following claims about Universal Brow Definer on her website:

Scientifically reads and automatically color adjusts to the pH of your eyebrow hair follicle.

The Definer will not work on your hand or other areas of the face but is specifically designed to simulate eyebrow hairs.

Automatically adjusts from light to dark, warmer or cooler, to all natural eyebrow hair shades including Platinum Blonde, Soft Auburn, and deepest Brunette.

Just stroke Universal Brow Definer over clean skin in your eyebrow area and watch as it automatically changes to the color of your own individual eyebrow hairs, filling in tiny gaps and perfecting your shape.

The Definer even creates a fuller stroke toward the root of the hair, thinning to the end, just like your own natural eyebrow hair.

If you have had a hair color service, Universal Brow Definer will refract the hair color you have chosen, causing your new hair color to blend more naturally with your own eyebrows.

The science behind Universal Brow Definer

There are two key elements to these claims that I’d like to comment on:  that the product automatically changes color to match natural brow shades and it is somehow triggered by the pH of the eyebrow follicle. The latter part of the claim doesn’t make much sense since the follicle doesn’t have an intrinsic pH and even if it did, the color of eyebrow hairs are not related to pH. It’s a moot point anyway since there doesn’t appear to be anything in this formula that could accommodate such a pH triggered change. (There are pH sensitive dyes but these are not allowed in products used around the eye.)

Enchanting encapsulation

Since pH isn’t an option are there other known mechanisms that could provide color change? In theory, yes. The formula contains three colorants: yellow, black and red iron oxides and white titanium dioxide. These colorants could be encapsulated (for example, with wax.) That encapsulation could provide a color change that is triggered by friction when the capsules are rubbed on the brow. However, I can think of no mechanism that would “automatically” match the released color to the natural color of the brows. Even if the colorants were encapsulated there is no apparent way to control how the color would be expressed.  I should also note that none of these proposed mechanisms can explain how the product would work on eyebrows but not your hand or face.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

My review is based solely on a review of the ingredients in the product and an understanding of the chemical and physical properties of these ingredients.  I can not conceive f any technical explanation for how this product could work  as the manufacturer claims. There is always the possibility, however slight, that this product could somehow be combining these standard ingredients in such a way as to produce an effect that is not apparent.  However, it would take a properly controlled test to convince me that this is the case and that this product is not just marketing hype. If anyone at Brenda Christian would care to share additional information with me about how this product works, I’d be happy to revisit the topic in a future post.

What do YOU think? Have you ever used a color changing product like this? What did you think of it?

Sophia’s eyeliner inquiry: How do they get the colors for liquid eyeliner? Are there bacteria in Wet n Wild eyeliner? Are there bacteria in colored eyeliner? What colors would have more bacteria or would it get moldy? Does the sun affect the different colors to have bacteria because of the reflection? Is Wet n Wild the best liquid eyeliner to use?

The Right Brain responds:

Sophia, we’ve never had anyone so curious about eyeliner before! First of all, you might want to go back and read our post on how eyeliner works. That will explain the basics of the formula. Go ahead, read it now. We’ll wait here…

All done? Good! Now, on to your questions….

Color safe

First of all, the colorants used in eyeliner are all approved by the FDA (in the US) for use around the eye. These include chemicals with names names like yellow and blue lakes, carmine (which comes from crushed up dead bugs) and mineral-derived colors like Iron Oxides, Chromium oxide greens, and ultramarines. (By the way, we’ve blogged before about the potential danger of eye products containing a black colorant known as kohl, so be sure to stay away from that!

Buggy bacteria

Second, you seem very concerned about bacteria in Wet n Wild eyeliner – normally this should not be a problem. We looked at the ingredients in Wet n Wild Eyeliner and found that it’s protected from bacteria by a combination of preservatives including methylparaben, propylparaben and imidazolidinyl urea. So unless the product is very old or it’s somehow been contaminated, it should be bacteria free. If bacteria DID start to grow in the product, they may nor may not be visible to you just from looking at it. Mold would be easy to spot, but bacteria is not so easily seen.

Here comes the sun

We’re not sure we understood your question about sunlight, but while the color of eyeliner may appear a little different under different lighting conditions, sunlight itself has nothing to do with whether or not the product has bacteria or what that bacteria looks like. If you’ve gotten a bad tube of eyeliner and it looks funny, either take it back to the store for a refund or throw it out and by a new one.

Finally, you asked if Wet n Wild Eyeliner is the best liquid eyeliner to use, but we’ll turn that question over to our Beauty Brains community. Can anyone out there recommend any eyeliners for Sophia? Leave a comment and share your eyeliner expertise!

From The Beauty Brains Forum Members: Cate, Purple Passion, and Pas71

Cate

One of my goals during 2007 and now into 2008 was to learn to apply eyeliner in a classy manner. I was so excited to try Pencil Me In eyeliner in Silky Suede which is a beautiful chocolaty color. Now I have definitely had problems in the past with pencil liners and generally prefer crème liners, HOWEVER, Pencil Me In went on very smooth and stayed very nicely. I did however, use an eye primer because I do have oily eyelids and when I didn’t use the primer the liner was gone in no time at all. The color was amazing and matched my green/gray eyes, pale Irish skin, and wannabe red hair beautifully. I liked the idea that the lid had a built-in sharpener, but unfortunately, mine was lost the minute I opened it. Seriously, I don’t know what happened to it. I was impressed with the number of different colors to choose from and took a good 20 minutes to decide . That is definitely a good thing!

Purple Passion

I tried the Pencil Me In eye liner pencil in Purple Passion. I’m not usually a fan of eye pencils. The line is never as sharp or as distinct as I’d like and it tends to smudge as the day goes on. The Pencil Me In eye liner produces a cleaner line than other pencils. The tip is harder; it’ almost as hard as a lead pencil. I got the best results by applying it in short strokes and building the color up rather than trying to apply it in one long stroke. This also gives you the option of going with a very soft, blended line or a more dramatic line. You can also use it as a shadow since it blends beautifully but it’s very shimmery so it’s definitely an evening look. The selection of colors is excellent and you could really have some fun with an assortment of colors.

Pas71

I am an avid fan of eye makeup; whatever it is, I’ll try it. I love doing dramatic eyes when going out and need to restrain myself during the day so I don’t go out with too much makeup on! Needless to say, I was psyched to try these new pencils.

I was really impressed by the color collection and settled on Char-Kohl, a nice, matte grey. When I received it, I was pleased to see that there was a sharpener in the cap! It didn’t work all that well and I don’t actually need another sharpener, but it’s a great idea, especially for on the go!

As for its performance, the color payoff was decent. I had to go over the line three times to get the color intensity that I was looking for, but it was, in the end, achievable.

The color was beautiful, but it did not stay put. I thought if I let it dry down a bit, it would stay, but 5 minutes later I could still smudge it quite easily with my finger. Great for a smokey look, not so great for a nice, neat line.

Also, the pencil had a nice consistency. Though I am used to gel and liquid liners (and Urban Decay 24/7 pencils, which are uber-soft and have the consistency of a gel), this pencil was not too hard for me, which was a nice surprise.

Overall, the pencils come in a wide range of colors, which is great, but the staying power and color payoff is not quite what you’d get in other pencils, such as Urban Decay’s 24/7s. I would suggest looking to them first (especially if you are looking for staying power and waterproof-ness), and then turning to Pencil Me In pencils if you are looking for a different color.

What do YOU look for in an eye pencil? What’s your favorite brand? Leave a comment and let us know. Or, you can start a thread in the Beauty Brains Forum. And if you’re interested in getting free goodies of your own, join the Forum now and show us you’ve got what it takes to be a Beauty Brainiac!