Am I Pretty Now?

We are releasing this episode appropriately on a day of picnics! Today, Hailey is bringing us our third installment of our summer series all on tanning. Join us while we discuss what happens to your skin on a molecular level when you spend too much time in the sun and the difference between UV-A and UV-B rays. We will also be debunking tanning myths including base tans (stop it!) and whether melanined skin can sans sunscreen (spoiler: NO!). So, before you head out to any July 4th picnics, make sure you pack the sunscreen!

In the second episode of our Summer Series, Erin is covering appetite suppressants. Join us while she explains the active ingredients that are veeeery similar to more serious drugs, the "natural" options and how deaths resulted in Europe banning some of these products ... but not the US. Warning: This episode may cause loss of appetite.

This week's episode will be the first segment of our summer series focusing on trends specific to getting summer ready. We are starting with a diet (naturally) called the Tapeworm Diet Pills. Hailey will be discussing the diet pill itself, the risks associated with inviting a tapeworm into your body and how it would be removed when the time came. If you squirm easily, be prepared. Sit back, grab a drink and tune in!

We are back! This week's episode is more of a relaxed episode about our experience at Zenkaikon 2022. We want to tell you all about the panels we sat in on, what we've been reading and Doctor Who. Tune in while we ramble on entertainingly.

This week we are bringing our first part two! Erin is back at it again with more odd practices humans have done with their teeth. She will be covering implants, veneers, flippers and grillz. If you're interested in learning about all the things people tried using as implants, health risks of veneers/flippers and who owns the most expensive grill, give the episode a listen!

On today's episode, Hailey is bringing us a mini episode discussing the FDA, aka Food and Drug Administration. Since they've been a hot topic in recent times, it is important to understand exactly what the FDA is in charge of, and what they aren't in charge of. Spoiler: Americans expect way more of them than what is authorized duties. Join us while Hailey discusses, more specifically, the FDA's role in regulations of cosmetics. It's a doozy!

This week, Erin is bringing us a potpourri episode about animal secretion facials. She will focus on the ingredients from the animal kingdom that are commonly used such as bee venom, whale sperm and bird poop. And she will tell us about the benefits of these components, and more! Tune in.

On today's episode, Hailey is going to be telling us about skin lightening: a way to chemically do the opposite of a tan! She will share the overall unfortunate reason behind the practice, what questionable ingredients have been used, and how companies are responding to questions about their ambiguous ethics. Tune in!

We are back from our minor winter weather break! Apologies. Erin is bringing us a new episode all about teeth! Well, at least a part one of teeth. She will be discussing whitening, blackening and bedazzling. Join us while Erin tells us what ingredients were used for whitening, what is behind the practice (and benefits!) of black teeth and how tooth bedazzling goes way further back in time than we expected. And Queen Elizabeth will be getting yet another mention in regard to this topic. What can we say, she was trendy!

This week, Hailey will be presenting about boobies! More specifically, the breast augmentation. Being the second most popular procedure in America, it's only time we get to it, right? You're going to be surprised when Hailey tells you when the first documented procedure occurred, what materials were inserted pre-implants, and what kind of wonky symptoms you could develop that the FDA will claim has no links to the surgery. Get ready, friends!

Erin is presenting everything about Dr. John Kellogg this week on the show. She will tell us about his innovative therapies practiced at his wellness retreat, Battle Creek Sanitarium. Kellogg believed that to achieve optimal health, you had to eliminate any extreme feelings, especially of the sexual variety. Join us as Erin tells us why Corn Flakes were initially developed and how he used light, water and yogurts throughout his therapies. Buckle in friends, it's a wild ride!

On this episode, Hailey is telling us all about the device called the Dimple Maker. Join us while she attempts to explain what dimples are, how they are thought of among cultures, and how you can get yourself a set for the low, low price of about $1,500. This will be another example of a more modern trend, being from only 50ish years ago. The gore is at a minimum, but the absurdity of the device definitely makes up for it.

Erin is presenting this week, and she is bringing us a bloody topic. Vampire facials! Unfortunately, Nosferatu and Dracula couldn't make it as guests. But, ya boy Pliney makes yet another appearance. Erin explains the allure and history of blood-letting and how, modernly, we use this technique to achieve that forever-young look.

We are back from a little break, and Hailey is bringing us the topic this week: Radium Water and Baths. With the discovery of radium came a lot of assumptions of what it could treat in terms of wellness. However, turns out radium is actually really radioactive. Join us while we discuss why people of the early 1900's bathed in and consumed radium-laced water and how it truly effected their health.

We are switching things up a bit and bringing you an early Halloween present! Since the holiday is right around the corner, we wanted to take things in a ghostly direction. On this episode, we will be sharing the Japanese urban legend that lends us our name for the show. We will also be sharing a couple beauty-related ghost stories from pop-culture, a movie review of a movie that hasn't actually been released (but will be soon! *fingers crossed*), and then we'll round it out with some of our own experiences. It's a long and relaxed episode, so get comfortable!

On this week's episode, Erin is bringing us a conversation all about eye stuff! She will be covering the barbaric techniques used with the installation of original eyelash extensions, how silent-film starlets got those raindrop lashes and how women achieved the sought after "bright" eyes caused by tuberculosis ... without actually getting tuberculosis. 

On this episode, Hailey will be talking about corsets, and how they weren't only physically dangerous, but also psychologically dangerous. She will also discuss waist trainers, which are basically modern day corsets. And are just as problematic.

This week, Erin is telling us all about the lethal, and sometimes disgusting, ingredients that have gone into makeup products throughout history. And how some of these questionable components still rear their ugly heads in the current market. We will also discuss how the symptoms of poisoning resulted in a vicious circle of using even more of these products! Queen Elizabeth makes yet another mention during our episode all about macabre makeup!

Episode 3 is all about Paris Green or Scheele's Green, a dangerous dye that was developed with an unstable arsenic compound. Hailey tells us all about why this color choice was a death sentence. And why it was a painful way to go in the name of fashion. This episode does include some gory details. Listen at your own risk.

On episode 2, Erin is bringing us a bit of a twofer special. For the main course, we will dive into mouches, or faux beauty marks, and how they were tools of fortune and status. And then we are giving you a little dessert by ending with merkins, or pubic wigs. Don't think too hard about it. It's exactly what you're thinking.

On our very first episode, Hailey will discuss why wigs were gross, dangerous, stinky and covered in lard!

Welcome to Am I Pretty Now? A podcast about the ugly side of beauty and wellness.