The Eco Well podcast

This episode featured a conversation with Dr. Agean Chan, California based dermatologist and beauty science blogger. A few weeks ago I asked my Instagram followers to send me their skincare questions. With over 100 questions sent in, we tried our best as many as we could. This episode is a little on the longer side as a result, but jam packed with so much good information. Thanks to everyone who submitted a question!

This episode featured a conversation with Joanne Sherrard, co-founder of one of my favorite Canadian beauty start-ups, Aurum Skincare. Prior to starting her brand, Joanne focused her masters research on Aesthetics Philosophy, a topic that I truthfully know very little about and also one that I thought would be an interesting vantage point for the personal care space. We talked about what aesthetic philosophy is, historical beauty preferences, and how this all plays into your cosmetic products.

In this episode I interviewed Belinda Carli from the Institute of Personal Care Sciences to go through the anatomy of a lotion - or emulsion products in general. We broke down the key ingredient types needed to make these products possible, from water to emulsifiers to preservative systems and more. Spoiler alert - there is NO SUCH THING as filler ingredients. Every ingredient serves an important function. For more on that, tune in to this informative episode - a cosmetics science 101 on emulsions!

This episode featured a conversation with Valerie George, cosmetic chemist and co-host of my other favourite beauty podcast, The Beauty Brains. A highly requested topic, we talked about the recent Toxic Beauty documentary. Did they get the facts right? Long story short, unfortunately, the answer was no. Before you tell me I’m wrong, please listen to the episode, it’s about 30 minutes and I think we did a pretty thorough review.

This episode featured a conversation with Dr. Alex Lorestani, co-founder and CEO of Geltor, a biodesign company that’s focused on creating globally scalable animal-free proteins, such as collagen for the personal care and food sector. We talked about collagen - it’s historical use, where it usually comes from, and why Geltor collagen, biodesign and how it can help our industry do better, sustainability, challenges with our current industry eco- certifications, and steps moving forward.

This episode featured a conversation with Ally Hasbun, PhD student researching cannabis. CBD (Cannabidiol) cosmetics is a big trend right now, but how much do we really know about this cannabinoid? In my conversation with Ally, we talked about what CBD is, the available data we have, regulations, quality control, and lots more.

This episode featured a conversation with Dr Ryan Armstrong, Biomedical Engineer, public health and consumer advocate and Executive Director at Bad Science Watch. We talked about MLM essential oils and all the dangerous misinformation they’re perpetuating. This was a topic a lot of you wanted me to cover on the podcast, was very excited that Ryan agreed to broach the topic with me.

This episode featured a conversation with Jonathan Jarry, science communicator at McGill and co-host of the podcast The Body of Evidence. Our conversation was focused on evidence and facts, particularly in the health, wellness and cosmetics space. We covered why evidence is important, what good evidence looks like, challenges in science including with respect to bias, replicability, and predatory journals, the Dunning Kruger Effect, overcoming misinformation and so much more.

This episode featured a conversation with Pia Long, perfumer, fragrance industry consultant, columnist at Perfumer & Flavorist and co-founder of Olfiction, a fragrance consultancy based in Europe. What do we mean when we say “natural” fragrance? This was the topic featured in this episode. We covered what “natural” and “synthetic” mean, what consumers should know about these terms, sustainability challenges in the fragrance sector, regulations, safety and so much more.

This episode featured an episode with Stephen Kirk on cosmetic allergens. We covered what cosmetic allergens are, how they’re determined and regulated, how they impact consumers, the challenge with many natural ingredients, what the claims ‘hypoallergenic’ and ‘dermatologically tested’ mean on a label, and so much more. This was an information-packed episode with so many important insights.

Economics and business as we know it are broken, and they're amplifying many of our societal problems - our environment being a big one. Can we actually make meaningful steps to addressing climate change, for example, unless we solve this core problem that's fueling it? An interview with Dr. Yannick Beaudoin - rethinking our economic system for better, more sustainable business (and societies)

In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Anke Ginzburg - a long time coming conversation all about INCI. What is it, why do we use it, and important details that brands and consumers should know, including regulations on ingredient listings.

This episode featured the panel discussion from our Toronto Green Beauty Night that happened just over a week ago. Featured in our Green Beauty Panel was Beta Montemayor, Kenna Whitnell, Dr. Vik Pandit, Jenn Harper, and Dayna Stein. A really great discussion filled with very important information to our industry, from brand owners, fellow formulators to consumers.

In this episode, I spoke with Megan Sieg (@megmadeup14), PhD student studying human exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals and their impacts on the brain. What does it mean to be an endocrine disruptor? Are our cosmetic products really ‘estrogenic’? We took a deep dive into this topic, and explored a few cases that a lot of consumers are worried about - parabens, aluminum, SLS, triclosan and phthalates. What does science have to say about these chemicals?

A follow up from our global climate strike, this episode featured a conversation with Dr. Shahir Masri - author of the book Beyond Debate: Answers to 50 Misconceptions about Climate Change, Co-founder of a project called On the Road for Climate Action. We talked about climate change, denialism, the scientific consensus, political action, and steps we can take as global citizens to make a difference.