Dying to Look Good : The Disturbing Truth About What's Really in Your Cosmetics, Toiletries and Personal Care Products [Paperback]

Christine H. Farlow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000

Who would expect that making a profit would be more important than people's health and their lives? Yet, this is exactly the case in the cosmetics industry. Cosmetics and toiletries are laden with toxic chemicals, many carcinogenic. Makeup, hair coloring products, baby powder, shaving cream, mouthwash and toothpaste are just a few of the products that contain cancer-causing ingredients. Even products that are supposed to be gentle and mild for babies often contain toxic, irritating chemicals.

Dying to Look Good tells you if the cosmetic and personal care products you're buying contain dangerous ingredients. It reveals what manufacturers don't want you to know about their products and shows you how to find the truth behind deceptive product packaging. You will learn how to confidently read labels so you know how safe your cosmetics and toiletries are.

This book classifies over 1200 cosmetic ingredients according to safety, whether they may cause allergic reactions, whether they have been reviewed by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel and if they are approved or recognized as safe by the FDA. It also lists over 750 cosmetic and personal care products that have been evaluated as "safe." In just seconds, you can find out if an ingredient in the product you're buying is harmful and you can identify safer products for yourself and your family.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Anyone who uses these chemicals on a daily basis would do well to get a copy of [this] book..." -- Dr. Bruce West, Health Alert

"...Every person who uses cosmetics...should have this book when they go shopping, or look up the products they are currently using." -- Lendon Smith, M.D., author of How to Raise a Healthy Child

"...Everyone concerned with looking good and being healthy needs this book to learn how to shop for cosmetics..." -- Ann P. Tidwell, Ph.D., 1st EnviroSafety

From the Author

Do you know what's in the make-up or the shaving cream you put on your face every day? What about the lotion you put on your skin or on your baby? Or the bubble bath you let your kids soak in? Or even the soap your family uses to bathe or the toothpaste you use to brush your teeth?

Many of the ingredients in the cosmetics, toiletries and personal care products you use every day are harmful. Studies have found that nearly 50% of cosmetic products evaluated were contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane. Cosmetics, toiletries and personal care products do not require FDA approval before they are sold to the public. A harmful product can only be removed from the market if the FDA can prove in a court of law that the product is harmful, improperly labeled or violates the law.

Most products are labeled to "sell" rather than to provide accurate information about the product. Terms like natural and hypoallergenic do not have official definitions, so the manufacturers can use them to mean anything they want. This often leads to misleading information about the product on the label.

You need to read labels more today than ever before! Because of increasing consumer awareness about healthy products, manufacturers are designing packaging to make it look like the product inside the package is healthy and made from natural ingredients. But if you read and interpret the ingredients on the label, there's a very good chance that you'll find that is not the case. Many of the ingredients added to cosmetics and toiletries are harmful or inadequately tested.

So, be sure that the cosmetic and personal care products you're using are healthy. With this book, you will discover how quick and easy it is to tell if the products you're buying contains dangerous ingredients and to find products that are safe and healthy to use.

You can't depend on the FDA or the manufacturers to make sure the products you buy are safe. It's up to you! Protect your family's health. Don't go shopping without this book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Keep It Simple Secrets for Health (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096356353X
• ISBN-13: 978-0963563538
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,178,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars overpriced, lacked substances, inconsistent recommendation, March 14, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dying to Look Good : The Disturbing Truth About What's Really in Your Cosmetics, Toiletries and Personal Care Products (Paperback)

I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about the good, bad and ugly sides of cosmetic ingredients.

Here are the reasons why I like this book:
-A list of cosmetic ingredients
-A good product classification ranking

Here are the reasons why I don't like this book:
-Overpriced; it actual value should be no more than $3.95
-Lacked serious substance
-Inaccurate recommendation

I found the Ecco Bella and Logona mascaras that she highly recommended turned out to be just as dangerous as I cross-referenced the ingredients using her book; if the iron oxide in the Ecco Bella & Logona mascara can cause skin and eye irritant, lung irritant if inhaled, I would not recommend if I were her.

There are two much better written books out there that I strongly recommend: the Safe Shopper's Bible by Steinman & Epstein and the Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd. Don't waste your money purchasing Ms. Farlow's book, it is almost a duplicate version of the Safe Shopper's Bible.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Life Saver!!, June 18, 2001

By 

Ruth Martinez (Tremonton, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dying to Look Good : The Disturbing Truth About What's Really in Your Cosmetics, Toiletries and Personal Care Products (Paperback)

This book, DYING TO LOOK GOOD, is truly a life saver. It gets right to the point, without a lot of unnecessary verbiage. The title tells it all. Our cosmetics (like a lot of other modern day products) are killing us--slowly, but surely. Unless we individually take responsibility and clean up our own corner of Mother Earth, we will need to pay the consequences of our own poor choices. Those consequences can only be a decrease in our quality of life.

I was quite surprised by the review written by "A reader from Colorado." She said "The biggest misleading part is that there is no word about the CIR being an industry agent of the CTFA, . . . This is clearly not true, as on page 14 of DYING TO LOOK GOOD, it very plainly states that The Cosmetic Ingredients Review (CIR) was established in 1976 by the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA). I felt that the reader's other issues were equally ill founded.

I personally like this book a lot. Five stars worth! This book fills a need in my life. I now have a compact reference to take with me when I shop for cosmetics which gives objective information about numerous ingredients. It not only tells me what the FDA and CIR say about their safety, but more importantly, gives an independent evaluation of safety, revealing that many ingredients which the FDA and CIR say are safe are in fact really harmful--or at least questionable.

This book is not something you pick up to while away an afternoon. It is a useful reference to be carried with you to help you make wise choices.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Shock!, June 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Dying to Look Good : The Disturbing Truth About What's Really in Your Cosmetics, Toiletries and Personal Care Products (Paperback)

At age 54, I finally decided to take care of what I put in my body, so I thought, "Why not what I put ON IT, too?" I purchased Dr Farlow's book with that in mind. I am shocked and appalled at what our government is allowing the cosmetic's industry to put in our make-up and other sundrie items.This may be a small book, but it is gigantic in the info it provides. I plan on taking it with me every time I shop for make-up, and to purchase the products that received good marks.This is a must have book, especially for those individuals with skin problems that might have never known what is causing those conditions.