Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Horror Show in The Beauty Industry: Know the Reality

The beauty industry gets worse day by day. There was a time when anti ageing creams were made just for mature skin. Now they have such skin care products designed specifically for adolescents. The whitening creams cannot be ignored either.  Many drugstores keep a shelf specifically dedicated to those items. But are they safe to use despite their stronger promise to whitewash a face within a couple of weeks? 

There is dark side to what the beauty industry is all about. It no less than a horror show.  If you wish to get it revealed to you I recommend that you read Stacy Malkan’s book called Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. Trust me, it is an eye opener.

According to the back of the book, Malkan works as a communication director for Health Care without Harm. She is also one of the founders of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. In Not Just a Pretty Face, she shows her extensive research on how both lower and higher end brands (names are in the book) sell makeup and skin care products full of harmful ingredients to their world wide consumers. They do not even spare the skin of the babies. She has also mentioned how her organization requested these brands to change their product formula only to end up with got no positive response. In other words, bringing a change to the beauty industry is quite a challenge.

Although Not Just a Pretty Face has some real bitter truths it is not at all boring to read. Malkan seems to be a gifted writer and explains everything in simple sentences. So do try to get a hold of her book. It should be available in most public and school libraries. But if you wish to get the sneak preview of this book you can try using the Amazon. By the way, on that site, the users have given it full 5 Stars. The book is actually deserving of it.

One thing I would like to point out here is that the book does not say that the entire beauty industry is bad. There are good companies out there who produce products that are safe to use. They cooperated with Malkan's organization. But after reading this book, do not come to conclusion that wearing makeup will poison your skin. We live in an industrial era. The air is too polluted and full of radiation. So saying goodbye to makeup forever will not guarantee that we will be able to hundred percent protect ourselves from any infections. Do wear makeup, but keep it minimum. Also if you are already faithful to a certain toxic makeup brand minimize using it. However, be careful about your skin care products. 

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