I thought we’d do something fun and interesting today! From what I can remember, I’ve said FOUR beauty-related things wrong for the LONGEST time. I seriously can’t believe no one pointed them out to me. But I guess that makes sense since I don’t really talk about skin care in real life. It’s just you Internet peeps! Keep mind that when I type out pronunciations, I’m not using the official system or whatever, I’m just piecing together words that I know sound like a given syllable.
1. Vitamin E or Tocopherol. I used to say it as [toe-koh-FAIR-ul]. Fail I know. According to Dictionary.com, it’s actually [toh-KOF-uh-rawl, -rol]. I basically displaced the stressed syllable.
2. Vitamin A (in the skin) or Tretinoin. I used to say it as [tre-ti-NO-in]. It was because (all-trans) retinoic acid, the chemical name for tretinoin, is pronounced like that: [re-ti-NO-ic] acid. It’s so true that, to assume something is to make an ASS out of U and ME. Haha! Anyways, it’s pronounced [tre-TI-no-in]. Again, the incorrectly placed stress was the culprit.
3. Emollient. I used to say it as [ee-MOH-lee-ent], when it’s actually pronounced as [ih-MOL-yuhnt]. So I used the wrong sound for the first and second syllables, and I even managed to add an additional syllable at the end. How in the world I scored a perfect on the Writing portion of the SAT is beyond me! Well, I did blow a dandelion into the wind for luck. Lol!!
4. Sephora. Okay this last one is probably the most ridiculous. Until someone told me I was saying it wrong, I pronounced this as [SEH-fur-uh]. I’m ashamed (not really) to say it, but I got it from the Final Fantasy villian Sephiroth, which is pronounced similarly [SEH-fur-oth]. COME ON! You can’t blame me! It’s my inner (okay I lied, outer) gaming nerd talking! I mean, they both look so similar in spelling and since I hadn’t encountered similar words, at least that I knew of, how ELSE was I supposed to pronounce it?! You can imagine the first time I brought up Sephora with a friend, and she’s like, WTF IS THAT?! LOL!
Anyways, I thought this would be a super fun topic. If I had a YT channel, I’d definitely start this as a TAG video and TAG a few of my friends. But alas, it’s not. 😦 What about you guys; I’d love to hear and laugh about your mistakes too. 🙂
The Triple Helixian 
Well, I just learned I pronounce Korres wrong, haha. I’m also not quite sure how to say Guerlain.
Posted by sblinde | May 12, 2012, 8:50 pmYeah I give up on Guerlain too. I just say grr-LANE. Lol!
Posted by John | May 13, 2012, 12:48 amQuercetin.. I can say it in my head but cannot pronounce it out loud 9/10ths of the time! I just say the Oak antioxidant haha. (from Korres, which MANY people also mispronounce. Kor-aize with rolled Rs and I was lucky enough to hear it straight from George Korres via video training so no one can tell me it’s pronounced cores now!) In all fairness these are Greek words I suppose. I speak French so the french brand names never gave me any trouble, but I know they do for many people as well. (I’ve heard Lise Watier and Vichy pronounced every possible way!)
Posted by mildlyaddictive | May 10, 2012, 12:24 amLol! I have never heard Korres with rolled Rs. Haha! I’ve only heard it pronounced two ways, with the stress either on the first or second syllable. That’s so cool!
And I don’t try to pronounce things in other languages correctly. I just play dumb and pronounce them all as if they were English words. 🙂 Like Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua, I say it exactly how it’s spelled…
Posted by John | May 10, 2012, 11:11 amHaha this is so funny and original!
I can’t say any of the acids – hydroxy is where I will just tail off, like “Hydroxyblah blah”. Tretinoin also always stumps me; I think I have said it as
Tret-in-OIN, emphasising the -oi. Oh dear!
Posted by 'Emma' | May 8, 2012, 7:18 amLol! Nice job. 🙂 “Blah Blah” Love that!
Posted by John | May 8, 2012, 3:10 pm