Sue says...Can all shower gels be used as bubble baths, or are some ingredients only meant for short-term skin contact?

The Right Brain Responds:
Excellent question, Sue, but there’s no simple answer. Products that are intended to remove oil and dirt from skin and hair (like bar soap, shower gels, body washes and shampoos) are a double edged sword. They use surfactants (aka detergents) to dissolve oils to get hair and skin clean, but dissolving too much oil can dry out skin and cause damage. And guess what – the surfactants that do a really good job of cleaning away “dirty” oils also remove more of the “good” oils.

Bath buddies

For most people most of the time, these surfactants don’t pose a huge problem. Most shower gels and bubble baths are based on some combination of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, and Cocamidopropyl Betaine. Short term exposure to these materials is usually fine. But the more sustained the exposure is, the great the chance is that these harsh detergents can dry out your skin.

This is particularly true in the case of bubble baths because a) you tend to soak in them longer, increasing the exposure time and b) the areas of the body that are soaking can be rather delicate (if you catch our drift.)  For example, over exposure to drying bubble baths can have an impact on yeast infections.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Not all shower gels make good bubbles baths, especially if you soak in them a lot. To be on the safe side, either minimize your soak time or look for milder (and more expensive) products that do NOT have Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, and Cocamidopropyl Betaine on the ingredient list.

Erica inquires…I saw the following question over at the Soap Making Forum:  “what are the benefits of bath bombs? like, what’s each ingredient good for?” Sounds like a good topic for the Beautiful Brains!

The Right Brain responds:

Thanks for the heads up on the Soap Making Forum, Erica, it’s a very interesting website and they raised a great question. To get an answer let’s start by taking a look at how bath bombs work.

Building a bath bomb

The key ingredients in a bath bomb are sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, essential oils, and color. They may also contain some  miscellaneous goodies.

Basically, these things are just one giant wad of fizzy materials. The technology is simple: sodium bicarbonate is reacted with acid to generate carbon dioxide gas. (The same chemistry is used in old school fire extinguishers and in Alka Seltzer tablets.) As long as you keep the bomb dry, they chemicals won’t react. But as soon as you drop in bomb in the tub, the water quickly breaks it apart (usually within 2 minutes) and the reaction begins. The dissolved gas forms bubbles around tiny nucleation sites like the bottom of the bath tub or the hairs on your legs and give your a tingly, tickling sensation. (Yes that’s right for an extra fizzy experience, take your bath before you shave your legs!)

Bath bomb benefits

So what do these ingredients do for you? Experientially a lot – the bubbles give your skin a tingly treat and the essential oils add to the experience by energizing or relaxing you. But functionally, bath bombs provide minimal skin benefits. If they contain certain kinds of salts there is evidence that they may have a therapeutic effect on skin conditions like psoriasis. But while some websites claim that bicarb has a cleansing effect or that the salts soften the water and increase moisturization, in reality soaking in these chemicals don’t enhance cleansing or skin conditioning.

The Top 5 Bath Bombs

If you’re looking for cleansing or moisturization, you’ll need a body was or lotion. But if you’re looking for a relaxing bath experience, bombs are the way to go.  Here are some of our favorites:

1. Moon’s Harvest’s Chocolate Covered Cherry has to be seen to be believed.
2. Lush’s Too Drunk Emotibomb is the most, uh, unconventional bomb we’ve seen.
3. Fizzy Baker’s Raspberry Cupcake is literally a baked good for your bathtub.
4. SpaGlo’s Cucumber Melon is wonderful if you’re a fan of Bath and Bodyworks.
5. Jane Inc.’s Fresh Flowers has the absolute cutest packaging. And for the thrifty shopper we’ll throw in one more: Home Body makes a bath bomb line that’s about half the price of everyone else’s!

How do YOU like to relax in the tub? Do you use bath bombs or other kinds of products? Leave a comment and share your bath beliefs with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Forum member tsunamino says…Short of scrubbing, how can you remove deodorant from your underarms at the end of the day? I’ve heard of this one product, Clarsskin that claims to penetrate the residue left behind to clean it off. Here’s what their website says:

Clarsskin Underarm Cleanser contains a unique patent pending combination of an effective chelating agent with special agents. This complex mixture is specifically designed to remove antiperspirant deodorant residue, efficiently and mildly. So what’s so special about chelating agents? Chelating agents have the capability of penetrating the residue left behind by antiperspirant deodorants — including the metallic salts they are made of! They do one thing and do it well! Clarsskin Underarm Cleanser is particularly effective with ingredients that are unusually mild but contain no sulfates, paraben and DEA.

Of course since it’s “patent pending” they don’t list the ingredients. Is there anything out there that could help to get rid of deodorant?

Right Brain clears things up:
It’s so rare I get to do any product reviews. Sarah and Mid Brain always seem to get product samples before me. However, this question was for me so too was the sample.

What is Clarsskin?

At its most basic level, Clarsskin is a body wash. It uses mild surfactants like Decyl Glucoside (derived from sugar) and Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate so it will not be as harsh as sulfate based body washes.  The mild surfactants also mean it will not foam as well.  The rest of the ingredients are standard.  Here’s a complete list of the formula right from the bottle.

WATER, DECYL GLUCOSIDE, SODIUM LAUROYL SARCOSINATE, COCAMIDE MEA, HYDROXYETHYLCELLULOSE, ETHYLENE GLYCOL MONOSTEARATE, ALOE BARBADENSIS LEAF JUICE POWDER, ANTHEMIS NOBILIS FLOWER EXTRACT, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE, DISODIUM EDTA, DMDM HYDANTOIN, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, FRAGRANCE

How is Clarsskin different?

The key Clarsskin claim is that it helps remove residue from your antiperspirant or deodorant. They say that it contains special “chelating agents” that take care of this problem. Is that true?

Well, the chelating ingredient they are talking about is Disodium EDTA. It is found in many personal care products for the purpose of both removing metal ions and helping boost the activity of the preservative. It is true that extra chelating ingredients will help improve cleansing. The improvement they provide is not normally noticeable so companies don’t bother putting additional levels in. No data is given on the company website to compare the performance to a standard body wash, but in principle this chelating approach could work because the excess deodorant residue is partially composed of water insoluble metallic salts.

Clarsskin Experience

Admittedly, this pit problem was foreign to me until getting the Clarsskin sample. I tried the product and there was certainly an effect. My underarms did feel different. Not sure if “cleaner” is the word I’d use but “fresher”. Since I didn’t want to bias the results I applied it without using my usual bathroom poof. In doing it this way, it was much harder to generate a good amount of foam. More foam doesn’t mean it’s cleaning better but it would’ve improved the experience.

The packaging is nice. You open it once and then squeeze out the product whenever you need it. It’s a good experience but I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it. I’m not sure if the extra step is worth the extra time. Wonder why they don’t just make a whole body wash with the chelating ingredient in it. hmmm

Do you need this product?

People with “pit stains” on their favorite blouses could definitely see a benefit from this product. Are you listening Left Brain? You might also see a benefit if you don’t like how your underarms feel, if you scrub extra hard on them or you just can’t seem to get them clean. The extra chelating ingredient could actually help get you cleaner.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line:

Clarsskin is an interesting product that attempts to solve a problem that affects at least a portion of the population. If you have a problem with stained shirts or just don’t like how your underarms feel, this product is certainly worth a try. We can’t say for sure it will work for you, but there is at least some science suggesting it might.

If you want to try Clarsskin yourself, take a look at their website.

How big is this problem? Do you think you need an extra product to get your underarms clean? Leave a comment and let the Beauty Brains community know.

Sarah Bellum says:

According to Cosmeticdesign.com, you can now buy an intimate hygiene product for the special guy in your life. To which I reply: Ewwwwww!

Feminine hygiene

In the past I’ve written about all sorts of cosmetic science advances for our dainty pubular regions. There’s the Bikini Kitty intimate shaving system to keep us hair free, there are female enhancement creams to keep us on fire, and let’s not forget about the Go Commando patch that lets us banish panties. But until now I haven’t had an equivalent breakthrough to share with our male readers.

Penile product

Enter Man Junk Intimate Wash, the first product to tackle the “sensitive issue of male private hygiene.” The claim to fame of this product appears to be that it removes bacteria that can lead to a bunch of problems including sexually transmitted diseases and increased risk of penile cancer. (Double ewwwww!) I don’t know where Lefty and Righty weigh in on this topic, but I find it hard to believe that a fancy-schmancy crotch wash will protect against venereal disease any better than plain old soap and water. (And if your guy’s hygiene standards are so low that he’s not even using bar soap, then good luck getting him to use Junk Wash!)

Foreskin formula

According to Cosmeticdesign.com, this product is based on natural and organic ingredients including aloe vera, lime essential oil, tea tree oil, jojoba oil and Totarol, which is a New Zealand tree extract. (Tree extract, hmmm. I’ll let you fill in your own joke here about getting “wood.”)

Anyway, I’m really curious to how this company spins advertises this product without making drug claims – they CERTAINLY can’t claim to stop penile cancer!

What do YOU think? Is Man Junk a scam or would you buy it for that special hygienically-challenged man in your life? Leave a comment and tell the rest of the Beauty Brains community all about your man’s junk!

From The Beauty Brains Forum Member: Taiwanese Girl

I love peppermint. Christmas is great because everything from chocolate to lattes are peppermint flavored, and the world just smells nice and minty. Nothing gets me in a better mood than peppermint. With that being said, I was so ecstatic to find a box from KLEAN Bath and Body containing their Bath Syrup and Whipped Shea Butter in Peppermint Dream!!

Scentual experience

From their website, KLEAN B&B’s mission is to “share our gift of scentual discovery with others by providing luxurious and refreshing products that are high quality, competitively-priced, mostly natural, while pleasing the body, nose and spirit.” If you’ve read my previous review about natural/organic products, you’ll know that I’m not a huge fan. However, looking at the ingredient list and breakdown of each product provided on KLEAN B&B’s website, it seems that they choose to use chemicals extracted from plants, rather than synthesized chemicals. This is slightly different from Origin’s use of natural products, in that they are just using certain plant extracts, without defining exactly what chemical is in the extract. Anyhow, their main focus is on scent, and boy, one whiff of their products will completely relax you, taking your mind off things like chemistry, cosmetic ingredients, and your grocery list.

Bath time and biochemistry

Anyhow, since I don’t have access to a bath tub, I used the Bath Syrup as a shower gel, and it was one amazing and scentsual experience. The syrup foams up quickly, making lots of spa bath bubbles (micelles!! Trap oil!! Yay biochem and what little I remember of it!), so it cleans ya up properly. It’s not as moisturizing as I’d like it to be, but I have been spoiled by using Olay’s Body Wash with those moisturizing ribbons. The smell however, completely makes up for everything. That cool peppermint smell has a hint of vanilla in it, evoking memories of holiday parties with hot peppermint cocoa and candy canes.

Rich and dreamy

After the shower, I applied the Whipped Shea Butter all over, and boy, was it rich and dreamy. I love how moisturizing shea butter is, but sometimes I hate how thick it is, and how much work I have to put in just to get my skin to absorb it. This whipped version makes it much lighter, and it absorbs into my skin quickly, without leaving any grease afterwards. My skin just felt smooth, buttery, and well moisturized.

The only down side of the Peppermint Dream is that the peppermint oil used for the fragrance has a cooling effect, so if you are like me, living in an apartment without any heat sources and poor insulation, you would be a tad cold after applying the Whipped Shea Butter. Your body will eventually heat up again, but I do suggest snuggling inside a warm blanket or in front of a heater after you apply the Shea Butter.

Yummy!

Overall, KLEAN Bath and Body offers great products at a decent price (not quite drugstore, but certainly still affordable), and they totally fulfill their mission of providing us with a luxurious scentual discovery. I would love to try more of their Whipped Shea Butter in other scents, such as Fig, German Chocolate Cake (yummy), and Klean Kolada.
What do YOU think about Klean products? Leave a comment and let us know. Or, you can start a thread and talk to Taiwanese Girl directly 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!