Saturday, April 11, 2015

In which Google messes up and gives me a scare

I recently decided to try a face cream containing retinol.  Shortly after I applied it, I felt a funny taste in my mouth.

So I googled retinol taste in mouth.

Near the top of the results was the wikipedia entry for strychnine poisoning!

It turns out that this result came up because Google perceives "retinol" as a synonym for "Vitamin A".  The strychnine poisoning article has a "Poisonings, toxicities, and overdoses" category box at the bottom, which includes a link to Vitamin A.  And one of the symptoms of strychnine poisoning is a taste in the mouth.

So I didn't die, and the next time I tried the retinol cream there was no taste in my mouth, so it must have been unrelated.

I haven't noticed any difference in my skin using retinol though.

2 comments:

laura k said...

The thing about those over-the-counter products is you don't know how much, if any, retinol (or any other ingredient) they contain. They're not regulated.

And apparently you need quite a bit of retinol to make any difference.

Disclaimer: my information may not be current. I decided to stop spending money and mental energy on so-called anti-aging products. But if there was a huge change in skin-care product labelling and regulation I think I would have seen that in the news at some point.

Also: I'm glad you didn't die.

impudent strumpet said...

That's interesting, because one thing I read is that you don't want to overdo retinol either - apparently it can make skin red or flakey.