Beauty has always been dangerous terrain. Author Kathy Peiss reminds us in Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture that we have had a long, precarious relationship with cosmetics. According to the book, at the turn of the twentieth century, “Americans distrusted cosmetics sold in the market, and with reason: Mercury, lead and arsenic appeared in formulas of a number of fashionable beauty preparations.”
Not much has changed over the course of one hundred and nine years, as the cosmetic industry is still not regulated by Food and Drug Administration (FDA,) despite studies that have found on average 13 hormone-altering cosmetics chemicals in teenage girls. Young women’s bodies are toxic from their beauty regime.
And what about my body after 25 years of daily exposure? I need to find out! That’s why Julie Gabriel’s The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances is an essential tool for arming ourselves as wise consumers.
This comprehensive resource guide not only tells us what is in the products that are available on today’s market, such as synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, formaldehyde, etc., but also gives us viable suggestions on how to avoid these products and still look and feel great. The book is chalk full of homemade recipes and safe on the shelf products. Her recipes use products that are readily available, so no need to fear hunting wild herbs in the rain forests of Africa.
Who said it's not easy being green? This book makes being beautiful as easy as (organic, of course) pie!
