“Not Just a Pretty Face” Book Review

Is your nail polish hurting your unborn child? Do you eat lead with your lipstick? Do you routinely use chemicals only 11% of which are screened for safety?

These are just some of the provocative questions that Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has raised over the past few years. And Stacy Malkan has written a groundbreaking “documentary” of the campaign’s beginning and growth periods, summarizing and outlining the issues so that the rest of us can join the conversation.

I promise you, after reading this book, you will never look at a main-stream glossy cosmetics ad the same way again. Or at their products. Despite the pretty shiny bottles.

“Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry”is a chronicle of women all around the world waking up and realizing that things just don’t add up. Why are known carcinogens included in our cosmetics? Why are these same companies spearheading the search for cancer cure? Who regulates the beauty industry?

The book pulls a wealth of information together. It is not a vague or emotional rant, but an informed and well-reasoned call to action. It is full of facts and figures, and the extensive bibliography lists numerous studies, so you can always do a check up for yourself. And it has personal stories and anecdotes that give those facts a human perspective.

Here are just some of the issues highlighted in the book:

A cofounder of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is also a multinational that manufactures most widely prescribed breast cancer drug. The company used to be owned by a multibillion-dollar producer of pesticides, paper and plastics, sited in lawsuits for toxic chemical dumping. Conflict of interests, anyone?

“Pinkwashing” – learn how the companies that “fight the cancer” will fight tooth and nail against regulations to remove or limit carcinogens in their products.

Only 11% of the 10,500 chemicals in our cosmetics have been screened for safety.

Lead in lipstick is not an urban myth…

Estrogen mimicking chemicals are abound in cosmetics, despite being linked to cancer and reproductive complications.

Who’s in charge here? Or how the industry “self-regulates”.

 

Now, to be fair, this book is from an activist perspective. The point of view may be a bit biased and thus inclined to interpret situations in a certain way. Some reactions may be exaggerated (the women who went undercover into industry conventions cannot really know what the participants are thinking), but the factual base is kept well in check.

Overall I found this book to be an empowerment to girls and women. Great will be the day when this book becomes the one read by our girls, instead of the glossy marketing ploys they presently consume.

This book is a poignant reminder that power corrupts. The beauty industry got our minds and our wallets and nobody’s out there to set the limits.

The chemical free-for-all has got to stop. And “Not Just a Pretty Face” gives some solid ideas of how to push the breaks.

Further Information:
You can read more book reviews at Amazon: “Not Just a Pretty Face”.
Also check out the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics site and the Teens for Safe Cosmetics site. Those are excellent resources.

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