controversial ingredients – Lab Muffin Beauty Science

Sunscreen safety and the FDA situation: Huberman’s skincare podcast response (Part 2)

Michelle Wong — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 04:32:41 +0000

The most controversial topic in Dr Andrew Huberman’s skincare episode is probably sunscreen safety, which is hugely misunderstood even by scientists and medical doctors. Much of the confusion comes from differing sunscreen regulations around the world, and the fact that “not safe” has different meanings in everyday, regulatory and toxicological contexts. This is part 2 of my articles responding to ...

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Factcheck: Low-Tox Sunscreen Swaps?

Michelle Wong — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 03:47:35 +0000

There’s been a few viral posts about how harmful chemical sunscreens are. The latest one is a post about “Sunscreen Swaps” from @a.glimpse.of.amelia (an Australian “low-tox” consultant) and @jordiepieface (a nutritionist from New Zealand), claiming that “some conventional sunscreens can do more harm than good”. Unfortunately, most of the post is inaccurate, and it’s likely scaring people away from using ...

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Is benzene in benzoyl peroxide a cancer risk?

Michelle Wong — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 11:58:37 +0000

There’s been a lot of stories about benzene contamination in personal care products over the last 4 years. This year, benzene was discovered in benzoyl peroxide, a staple acne treatment. How concerned should we be? Petition and original paper I’ve written about the background behind Valisure’s benzene analyses before, as well as questions about the accuracy of their data and ...

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Cyperus oil for hair removal: Is it safe and effective?

Michelle Wong — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 01:09:43 +0000

There’s been a lot of hype around Cyperus oil for hair removal, largely based on a study where it supposedly worked as well as laser. Unfortunately I don’t think it works, and if it did work, it would be a risky product to be using. For context, my PhD is in medicinal chemistry. Part of this involves looking at the ...

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Benzene in your products, Part 2: The story of Valisure

Michelle Wong — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:01:50 +0000

Here’s Part 2 of our deep dive into benzene contamination in your products. In Part 1, we talked about whether the experiments were “realistic” (no), and whether the cancer risk was described accurately (also no). This time, we’ll be discussing the wider issues around the private lab behind these findings, Valisure. This is adapted from the video version (which works ...

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Benzene in your products, Part 1: Bad science

Michelle Wong — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:57:51 +0000

It’s now Round 5 of “benzene in your products is giving you cancer” – over the last three years, this “known human carcinogen” been found in hand sanitiser, sunscreen, deodorant, dry shampoo, and now benzoyl peroxide acne products. I previously talked about benzene in sunscreen and dry shampoo, but it’s time for a deeper dive into these findings, and the ...

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DMDM hydantoin and formaldehyde in haircare

Michelle Wong — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 07:00:12 +0000

DMDM hydantoin is a preservative commonly found in shampoos. It started getting a lot of attention in 2021, thanks to a number of lawsuits surrounding hair loss – so let’s talk about the science behind it and whether it’s safe. (This post is partly based off a longer video about haircare misinformation on TikTok, which also covers sulfates, silicones, testing ...

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Sunscreen absorption and receptor binding: Debunking TikTok Misinformation

Michelle Wong — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 11:00:25 +0000

There’s tons of misinformation on the dangers of sunscreen on social media, and it seems like all of the myths make the rounds each time a new platform emerges. Currently the trending platform is TikTok. Even though sunscreen safety is a topic I’ve covered many times, it repeatedly comes up in many different flavours. I’ll break down the misinformation in ...

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Parabens, Fragrance, Colorants, Talc: Debunking Bobby Parrish’s TikTok misinformation

Michelle Wong — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:37:23 +0000

Bobby Parrish, a home cook and food influencer who goes by the name FlavCity, has made a number of viral TikTok videos recently about dangerous personal care ingredients. As you might expect, there’s quite a lot of misinformation in them. I debunked a couple of them in a recent YouTube video, along with some other TikTok videos – you can ...

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Propylparaben in CeraVe: Debunking TikTok misinformation

Michelle Wong — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 23:30:41 +0000

There’s been a recent viral TikTok video from Santa Cruz Medicinals, a CBD brand that sells skincare. In it, their founder claims CeraVe is “trash” because it contains propylparaben. Here’s what he says in the video: “Do you use this? This contains propylparaben. Propylparaben is an estrogen-like compound that is under the class of what we call parabens. Women who ...

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