Jaclyn Cosmetics Lipsticks First Impressions Biochemist Perspective: Part 1

Hey guys, my name is Kena Whitnall and I never thought I'd be making this video, but here I am filming this video, so I'm going to provide a little context of what's going on here. I am a

biochemist

. I did a BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Guelph in Canada and have worked in Quality Management ever since. I have been a

cosmetics

formulator for the past six years, managing many brands and product lines and involved in the commercial production of those skin care products. and mental health products, so I've seen a lot of production facilities.

I understand what goes into making products and have been a fan of Jacqueline House for a long time. I used to watch her videos when I was 16 and learning about polluting makeup how to do my highlights I actually bought the Jacqueline hell palette which I love. I use her almost every day still, so when I found out she was coming out with a lipstick slot and a lipstick line, I was super excited and of course I was going to support, you know, this girl I followed for years and I've admired in the beauty space, and you know, since I stopped making my products, more things have happened and as someone very passionate about both biochemical microbiology and product quality, I really couldn't.

Let's let this pass, especially with the silence that's been going on on your

part

and your brand's

part

of not coming forward and explaining what's really going on with these products, so that's what I'm going to do today. I received my order from Jacqueline Cosmetics I only have about two shades, but I'll open them up for you on camera and do a little visual inspection and then move on with my thoughts on what she said in her video and how that didn't. align with everything that goes on in manufacturing similar products and how it doesn't really add up but it doesn't make sense to me as well as just my initial thoughts on do you know what the product looks like?

I will also microbially test these

lipsticks

because that's what I do for a living. I send products all the time for microbial testing and I'm willing to pay for those tests and get some results because obviously she's not going. recall these products but they are contaminated in some way we really don't know what so I'm curious to know what's going on here and I think a lot of you are curious too so let's come together science babes and get to the bottom of this , so I have my package here from Jacqueline Cosmetics and I'm going to open it up in front of the camera so that it doesn't cast any shadows, you know, I've already contaminated these

lipsticks

before you even got to it, so here we are.

Wow, I'm in my parents' bathroom, so if it's eco, I'm really sorry, okay, but without a pocket, pretty typical, I have the perfectionist and Sophia shades, which I love the moods that are like my lips , but better, that's why I bought these two shades. So when I open it, the

first

thing I'm going to do before I even open them is I'm going to look at the ingredients list and talk to you about the ingredients that are in these products and if I see any potential problems or potential opportunities for microbes to grow and bacteria to be present. in this formulation, so the

first

ingredient, castor seed oil, is a classic, lip type of product, it's really great for the lips, it's a little sticky, so I'm surprised it's the first ingredient. second is caprylic capric triglyceride, so what it is actually is essentially coconut oil, but they've fractionated it so it's just a little chain of coconut oil and the second third ingredient, polybutene, is not the prettiest , it is an oil derived ingredient moving down the list I'm going to skip some just because it's not really that interesting, they are all oils or waxes up to this point, yes what I can say with this formula is that it contains both water soluble and aqueous .

Or that, what can I say about this formula, because it contains soluble oils, waxes, butters and water-soluble ingredients, like citric acid, leiseth in benzyl benzoate, things like that or water-soluble, so we have a mixture of both ingredients soluble in water. and oil and ingredients Now, when we think about how bacteria can grow, the only thing that bacteria and microbes need to be alive is water and organic substances, that is, carbon-based materials, so it's things like oils, waxes, butters, so in this formula we have the perfect breeding ground for microbial contamination, however, there are a lot of preservatives in here, like citric acid, it's an aesthetic ingredient that can help lower the pH.

Preserve a little of the benzyl alcohol. I guess it's probably the most active preservative in this formula. there's this Filtrete radish root ferment that the natural products industry claims is a natural preservative fad, we'll get to that later and then benzyl benzoate again is a preservative, so from the looks of this formula, yeah , it has the possibility of microbial contamination, but if you know that all of these ingredients are here, it should have a shelf life of, I would say, 12 to 24 months and that's just my personal and professional opinion based on just looking at the formula without really know how much of each ingredient is present, so just go ahead and open this up, okay?

So what's really strange? What I will know is that they have the exact same code on the bottom, which is unheard of, like if you have two different shades, these are two different shades, so I have Sophia and then Perfectionist, but the codes are exactly the same, the code is GC 0 5a, now this is not possible because if you make a product that has different ingredients, different amounts of pigment, that is a different batch that deserves a different batch code and it needs to be tracked differently because when something goes wrong, like in this case you should be able to remember that product and chances are it wasn't the entire line it should just be that shade that potentially contaminated that batch and that's why badge traceability is very important so if something goes wrong and there is contamination, as happens all the time in

cosmetics

and personal care products, then you can recall that lot, but only that lot and you don't have to recall the entire line, it just makes sense that this is how we operate in this industry, so I'm going to go ahead and open them up.

I'll start with Sophia, some Sophia opening and again it has the same thing, but it also has the same lot code on the bottom of this lipstick. It's GC. 0 5a the same as everyone else in the world with Jacqueline Cosmetics I'm really afraid to open up ok let's do it right so by visual inspection it honestly looks good my mind has no holes no hair not even that moisture mark from what the people were talking about their lipsticks I don't have it at all it looks soft it smells good it doesn't actually smell at all stale it smells good I guess this is a custom scent it literally smells like vanilla fake vanilla scent ok So this Sophia looks good Visually absolutely fine like any other lipstick I've ever owned.

It looks smooth, no holes, no hairs, no apparent contamination, so I'll leave it at that. I'm not going to try this lipstick. obviously because we don't really know what's really there and if they're all from the same batch I definitely wouldn't use this on my face okay so moving on to the next this is perfectionist again same batch of bone dc05 a when I open up above, we have the same batch code again. Do you see 0-5? A very strange thing, so I'll open it. Okay, interesting. This one has I don't know, oh yeah, you can see it.

This one has a look. little mark on it, see, I hope you can, yeah, it's catching the light, yeah, to see that little whiteness, so it's definitely a wet spot, oh oh, okay, this one's interesting. I see fibers, yes, so this one has a hair on it. I'll do some other videos just zooming in on the product. Hopefully I'll insert them here if I can check it out enough. This one has a fiber growing from the top, not sure what that would come with. It has a wet mark. I see a fiber on the side here also growing outward.

What else can I see? I see an icy texture. I see some lumps or air bubbles. I see a black mark on the lipstick. I'm really going to try to get some shots and get closer so you can see. I don't have a microscope or anything right now, but I think even with an iPhone camera you'll be able to see it visually. look at this, okay, so if I smell this one, it actually smells different than the other one, sorry, I just want to do a scent test here because there is an apparent difference to me, okay, so this one is very sweet, vanilla, a little bit Nutty, it smells. well and that's Sophia Sophia smells good now perfectionist or yes perfectionist this the aroma is different but I still have that sweet vanilla aroma but I understand that my people said Plato Plato's aroma is actually rancid oils you are smelling oils that have been added to lose, it's a noticeable scent and I was like, oh yeah, it's not my favorite and visually this one just doesn't look right, it has little hairs on it, the tip seems to have little white dots on it and then you can definitely you can see that little watermark that there's there, okay, it's interesting, so we definitely have one that's visually contaminated, which is good.

I was afraid that they would both look good and this maybe wouldn't turn out so well, so what I'm going to do from here is I'm going to send both of them to a microbial testing lab and they do a series of tests on it, even to be able to challenge the preservative system here by putting it in extreme conditions, whether it's heat or exposure to humidity, exposure to water. and that will test the preservative system and then they will also test four different microbes and how they do it is all this, you know, you've seen those petri dishes, well, they'll actually use different nutrient mixtures that are better for certain microbes than others. and in fact, they may add some preventative ingredients that you know don't allow the growth of certain microbes, so it allows for identification.

There are also some tests, such as iodine test, some microbes will change color. some will not and this is how you can identify the microbe that is present in the formula. Simply opening those lipsticks to the air shouldn't affect the microbial growth inside the actual lipsticks, so that's not something to worry about, which worries me too. What I'm going to do with this is I'm going to send a couple more lipsticks with comparable formulas, so the ones that contain water and oil ingredients as well as a preservative system, I'm going to send those lipsticks to the lab as well. so you know A kind of control of a famous brand.

If you have suggestions for brands you want me to send along with this, I'll just choose the formula closest to this Jacqueline Cosmetics formula, so the last and most basic test. The test that is done with cosmetics is the total plate count type, so if I just dilute it and spread it on an agar plate that has a nutrient-rich medium, what is going to grow, how many things are going to grow and that It is called total viable plaque. count so that that is also tested during a macro food test and then that will really tell us that you know how dirty these real identification tests are that are a little bit more complicated and you have to grow the bacteria and then do them. all the subsequent testing, that's why microbial testing takes so long because you have to allow these things to grow to a point where you can identify them, so as soon as I get back to Canada I'll send them to the lab in Toronto that I use and then I'll make another video showing all the reports associated with these guys as well as the controls that I send, so I know I've touched on batch code and how that just works.

This doesn't happen in this industry at all and there is no way you can have two shades of the same lot code; It just doesn't happen in the personal care or natural health products cosmetics industry. The other thing I want to mention is On the whole white glove aspect, there is no lab in the United States that has a non-prescription drug manufacturing license that would ever carry cotton gloves into their facility. It is a health hazard. It's an SEO. Cotton is easily contaminated. It is not waterproof either. which allows anything to pass through it so I would never use it on a production floor, it could potentially be used during the packaging process but those areas are completely separate and there is no chance of cross contamination in a drug manufacturing without prescription. installations like that, it's just not possible, the other thing you mentioned in your video is that they used a towel, a cotton towel to clean the VATS and thank you that really helped the lipstick when they were making it and they pumped it into the tubes of the lipstick. that doesn't happen, they don't use cloth, they don't use cloth to clean anything in that type of facility, they use boiling water followed by 100 percent ethanol, which completely cleans and eliminates all possibility of bacteria, they would never introduce something like that. cotton in that space isa huge risk of contamination, it would never happen, it's not possible, there's just no way, so everything she said in that video is like I just know there's no way that would actually happen, it's so impossible and I know there's There is no laboratory in the US.

That would work that way because you will lose your license. You are not going to have satisfied customers, it is simply not possible, no one would switch to cotton gloves just to not leave fingerprints on something, if anything, they will leave fingerprints. fingerprints and then in post-processing when everything is closed, I could use a microfiber cloth to clean those fingerprints, but there's no way that on a production floor you're going to have cotton gloves that have fibers all over them, it's just not possible. , so those two things really are the most annoying to me. and the lot code thing doesn't make sense this has never happened it should never happen if you have different shades they need different codes they were produced in different batches not at the same time it doesn't make sense and no one wears cotton gloves in a drug manufacturing facility over the counter, which is where she claims her products were made, so it's a lot of tricks and what really disappoints me is that she doesn't acknowledge it, you know, this happens in this industry.

There are bad laboratories, there is surely a risk of contamination, and when this happens, it is up to the brand to take it on board and make a recall, the recall is a really standard process in this industry and, in fact, you should practice recalls if that is the case. producing over-the-counter drugs and the fact that it hasn't happened yet these products have not been recalled when they are obviously contaminated and obviously not safe for public health, it is a big problem and for the average person this is not going to hurt them, you know it could cause a slight infection or irritation or something, but where this is a big problem is in immunocompromised people who don't have healthy immune systems that can't fight things like mold, Eastham bacteria and they could get Las Secondary infections or even the primary infection could be extremely serious for them and send them to the hospital with life-threatening conditions and that is no joke and I am sure that not everyone who bought these lipsticks is watching social media and is aware of what what's going on.

I continue with this and to me I feel like this is wrong and she really needs to own up to what she posted and you know, people make mistakes, labs make mistakes and if she could have just said hey, you know I worked with a Bad lab, this It was an urgent job. I am going to withdraw the products. I'm going to do this right. It would be a different story, but she has blatantly lied in lies that just don't make sense, so I have some problems with that. That's why I'm taking some steps and I'm going to do these microbial reports because I think that the public like you deserve to have the answers that they want to have and get to the truth and get to the bottom of the matter, that's why I'm making this video and microbial testing takes ten days so I'm sending them out for testing on Tuesday so hopefully in two weeks I'll have the results and I'll do another video with all the results.

I will post actual PDFs that you guys can click on, scroll through, and read for yourself. I won't just put them in the video. I want you to really see the science, but I'm going to walk you through that report and explain, you know what? It was reported on whether there was contamination or not, identification of the microbes and the type of results of that microbial contamination, so if there are certain microbes that are opposed, I will explain what they do and how they may or may not be harmful, because you know. bacteria that are actually not that harmful to human health, but there are many of you students that are extremely harmful, so yeah, that's it for me.

Thank you very much for looking and thank you for your interest. I think the science behind makeup and cosmetics. It doesn't really get a lot of attention and it's unfortunate that it had to happen this way, but I'm glad that you are interested and want to know more and understand what goes into making products in the fact that this never happens on these batches this This never happens this has never happened in my history of this industry and I guarantee it will never happen again because no one does this like this it's absolutely crazy so yeah that's it for me if you have any If you have any questions or you know you want to know more, you can follow me on Twitter, I'm Whitnall or just leave a comment below, but I will definitely post more videos on cosmetic science and then do the report in ten days.

As I get those results because I know you guys are expecting that, but my initial impression was that one of them was okay, one of them visually obviously wasn't okay and to me that's a big problem. I wouldn't use either. I'll leave them anywhere, I'll keep them closed until I send them to the lab because that's just disgusting, but yeah, the other thing is if you guys have more of these because I only have two shades, I'd love to send more. to the lab because this is a very small sample size, I would have preferred to have at least three, so if you are willing to part with your nasty lipsticks, send me a message and know that we will arrange shipping. really cheap and then I'll pay for the tests but it would be better to have a couple more lipsticks and since they're out of stock I can't get any more so if you guys are okay with parting with your nasty contaminated lipsticks and if you want to put them in butter good science, then send me a message and I'll look at them tested.

This is the strangest video I've ever made. I will say I never thought I would make a video like this and I'm not here to throw shade or ruin her so I'm not here to throw shade or ruin her career but it's like she's someone I wanted to support and have admired for a long time. the fact that this happened and she really doesn't recognize it and I understand these processes and I'm a part of them every day. I'm just amazed at how she and her team are handling it, so I think that unfortunately it's up to the public to kind of talk to each other and figure this out ourselves because they're silent, but please don't use these lipsticks, please don't use these lipsticks because there's obviously something wrong with them, that is, there's something wrong here, it's just not like that. okay well thank you all so much for watching and yeah stay tuned for the next video subscribe me if you want to get notified for the next video it's coming out in about two weeks thank you so much for watching and I will. see you soon