Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry

Lead in lipstick? 1,4 dioxane in baby soap? Coal tar in shampoo? How is this possible? Simple. The $35 billion cosmetics industry is so powerful they’ve kept themselves unregulated for decades. Not Just a Pretty Face chronicles the quest that led a group of health and environmental activists to the world’s largest cosmetics companies to ask some tough questions: Why do companies market themselves as pink ribbon leaders in the fight against breast cancer, yet use hormone-disrupting and carcinogenic chemicals that may contribute to that very disease? Why do products used by men and women of childbearing age contain chemicals linked to birth defects and infertility? As doors slammed in their faces and the beauty myth peeled away, the industry’s toxic secrets began to emerge. This scathing investigation peels away less-than-lovely layers to expose an industry in dire need of an extreme makeover. The good news is that while the major multinational companies fight for their right to use hazardous chemicals, entrepreneurs are developing safer non-toxic technologies and building businesses on the values of health, justice and personal empowerment.

About the Author :
Stacy Malkan is communications director of Health Care Without Harm, and a media strategist and cofounding member of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a national coalition working to eliminate hazardous chemicals from personal care products. Stacy is a former journalist and newspaper publisher, and a longtime environmental health advocate who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Review :
"This is a gripping, personal book by a recovered cosmetics addict with a great factual range on the impact of an unregulated group of companies, which have chemicalized the commercialization of beauty. This book should be read by women and men who have trusted, for too long, the companies whose products get inside their bodies and their minds, to the detriment of their health. Governments should require pre-market testing for safety. Ms. Malkan provides them with the evidence to finally act on behalf of consumers." --Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, author of Unsafe at Any Speed "A must read for everyone. Writing this book at this time is most important. If we as a human race are not waking up to the realities within our biological systems, we humans are next on the endangered species list. Thank you Stacy for this most important investigatio" into the hidden dangers of everyday personal car." --Horst Rechelbacher, founder and former owner of Aveda "As a cancer survivor it is of great concern to me that the products I am using to make me beautiful on the outside are potentially making me ill on the inside. The skin is the largest organ in the body with the capability to absorb everything, so how is it possible that our skin products continue to go unregulated by the FDA? Shame on them for neglecting the American people in this way. Thank you Stacy for exposing the truth. The jig is up." --Fran Drescher, New York Times-bestselling author and star of the Emmy award-winning series The Nanny ; visionary and president of the Cancer Schmancer Movement; uterine cancer survivor "As Stacy Malkan writes, the jars and bottles may be exquisite, but the truth is sadly painful about the ingredients in cosmetics and the defensiveness of the cosmetic industry. Her book is a captivating and convincing call to women to take a second look at the cosmetics they are exposing themselves and their unborn children to -- and to do something about it. This book should be required reading for all teenagers, including the young men." --Theo Colborn, PhD., leading scientist and expert on endocrine disruptors; president of TEDX (The Endocrine Disruptor Exchange); coauthor of Our Stolen Future "If you've ever thought twice about what's in your shampoo bottle or a tube of lipstick, it's thanks to the fine work of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. In Not Just a Pretty Face , Stacy Malkan introduces us to the brilliant and dedicated women behind the campaign, who have dared to take on Big Beauty and managed to reinvent the environmental movement at the same time. It's an inspiring and provocative take on an industry-gone-wild and what must be done to protect our health and the planet. Read this important book -- you'll never look inside your bathroom cabinet in the same way again." --Virginia Sole-Smith, environmental/women's health journalist " Not Just a Pretty Face underscores why we need Moms Rising, why we need a massive number of citizens' voices reminding our leaders about what their priorities need to be: safe products for our children and for ourselves. Together we can give our government a makeover." --Joan Blades, cofounder of MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org; author of The Motherhood Manifesto "The jig is up for the cosmetic industry. Stacy Malkan's powerful compelling story of the overuse of unhealthy petroleum products in the stuff we put in our hair, on our face and over our body is so very important for us to hear, especially teenagers. She's clearl" got the science down, but it is the fascinating stories of heroes and hope in the battle to "make over" the beauty industry that makes her book so readable." --Don Hazen, executive editor, AlterNet.org " Not Just a Pretty Face is an entertaining and inspiring account of what we can all do to protect ourselves and our families from the toxic ingredients in our body care products and cosmetics. The well-researched and dramatic stories of the scientists and activists who are working to protects us, their recent successes, and the tragedies that ensue because our government fails to regulate toxins are unforgettable. A must read for anyone who cares about our health and environment." --Arlene Blum, PhD chemist; author of Annapurna: A Woman's Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life "We are being exposed to toxins in personal care products without knowing it. Not Just a Pretty Face effectively conveys volumes of information while keeping us hanging page after page. Not only will you feel much more informed after you finish, you will also feel like you have just read a great mystery. Each and every American should read this book and take action." --Sabrina McCormick, PhD; film director, No Family History ; Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar, University of Pennsylvania "Crucial reading for anyone who has ever been to a drugstore. By examining advertising and the "beauty" industry, this book calls into question terms like "herbal" and "natural," and the very brands we have been taught to trust. Be prepared for the urge to take ou" and investigate every product in your bathroom cabinet." --Jesse Epstein, documentary filmmaker, Wet Dreams and False Images (Distributed by New Day Films) "Stacy Malkan strips back the layers of the powerful cosmetic industry and reveals the truth about the personal care products we use daily. Not Just a Pretty Face offers up shocking information backed up by powerful studies and quotes from experts - all packaged in an accessible style that doesn't alarm but informs. What's more, Malkan provides to necessary tools to help consumers make better choices -- for themselves, their children and the planet." --Leslie Garrett, columnist and author of The Virtuous Consumer: Your Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World