The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (Paperback)

by Julie Gabriel (Author)
Key Phrases: cosmetic ingredient review, toxic beast, synthetic skin care, United States, Green Detox Drink, European Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this thorough, practical guide, writer and registered nutrition specialist Gabriel (Clear Skin) recommends subjecting everyday cosmetics to the same scrutiny with which we subject our food: "each cosmetic chemical ends up in thousands of hungry mouths covering our skin-pores." Navigating labels is a true problem, because cosmetics come under no government regulation, unlike food and drugs; as such, skin products sold as "natural" or "organic" may contain numerous unsafe chemicals, with a few token ingredients to justify their claims. Gabriel provides a list of dangerous ingredients to watch out for (and why), identifies the safest products on the market (free from "synthetic dyes, fragrances, preservatives or detergents"), and takes readers step-by-step through cleansers, toners, facials, moisturizers, sunscreen, hair care and baby care. Her sophisticated daily regimen (two daily cleansings, exfoliation, toning, moisturizing and sun screen) may be too much for some readers, but those with the wherewithal will also find some useful, surprising tips for home-brewed cosmetics (eggs for masks, lemon and sour cream for exfoliants, organic mayonnaise for a moisturizer and foot mask). Though aimed at women, Gabriel also covers products used by men and children, including shaving cream, soap, shampoo and powders.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

Go green and get gorgeous

The promise of beauty is as close as the drugstore aisle—shampoo that gives your hair more body, lotions that smooth away wrinkles, makeup that makes your skin look flawless, and potions that take it all off again. But while conventional products say they'll make you more beautiful, they contain toxins and preservatives that are both bad for the environment and bad for your body—including synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, and even formaldehyde. In the end, they damage your natural vitality and good looks.

Fortunately, fashion writer, nutritionist, and beauty maven Julie Gabriel helps you find the true path to natural, healthy, green beauty. She helps you decipher labels on every cosmetic product you pick up and avoid toxic and damaging chemicals with her detailed Toxic Ingredients List. You'll learn valuable tips on what your skin really needs to be healthy, glowing, and youthful.

Julie goes one-step further—and shows you how to make your own beauty products that feed your skin, save your bank account, and are healthy for your body and the environment, such as:

• Cleansing creams and oils • toners • facials • under eye circle remedies • anti-aging serums • lip balms • scrubs • exfoliators • clay and cleansing masks
• moisturizers • acne treatments • makeup remover • teeth whiteners • shampoos, conditioners • fragrances • sun protection • bug repellants • baby products • and much more!

With her friendly, thorough, and helpful advice; fabulous beauty recipes; product recommendations and ratings; Toxic Ingredients List; and a complete appendix of online resources, Julie Gabriel gives you all the information you need to go green without going broke and become a more natural, healthy, and beautiful you.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: HCI (September 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757307477
• ISBN-13: 978-0757307478
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,497 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding information., August 30, 2008

By	Monica Garcia "ReadingWithMonie.com" (Arlington, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

From the founder and owner of the organic skin-care line, Petite Marie, comes a revealing look at cosmetics and skin care that the most of the beauty industry would love to keep secret. For instance, all that a product needs to be labeled as "Organic" is a drop of organic essential oil. This is called greenwashing and most greenwashers spend more money on promoting themselves as environmentally friendly than they do on formulating toxin-free, environmentally sound products.

With The Green Beauty Guide, Julie Gabriel starts with the basics of learning all about your skin and guides you through what you should look for in all your beauty products. She teaches you the how tell the difference between a good marketing campaign and truly organic products. You'll also find The Ten Commandments of Green Beauty, How to Go Green Without Going Broke and even recipes for your own organic beauty products such as cleansers, toners, facial masks, moisturizers and even acne zappers with simple easy to find ingredients.

For me, a not so environmentally conscious consumer, the realization what most of us are doing to our skin and the environment was initially a bit intimidating and scary really but Gabriel's information makes it easy to make the green switch. I've already been through my cabinets checking labels and packaging. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in making a difference.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Green Beauty Guide, September 30, 2008

By	Readingrat - See all my reviews

The Green Beauty Guide (GBG) is a wonderful reference that will have a place on my shelf for quite some time. I personally found this book particularly useful because I have an allergy to the paraben preservatives that are commonly used in beauty products and cosmetics so I have a little experience with what the author is talking about. However, thanks to the GBG I am now aware of several other ingredients that I should also be watching out for when I read labels and I've been able to add several new items to my beauty routine with confidence.

However, the Green Beauty Guide doesn't just put the spotlight on the things you shouldn't be putting on your face and body, but it gives you guidelines on how to actually find the products that don't contain the harmful ingredients which, believe me, is not as easy as it sounds. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent searching through beauty aisles and cosmetic cases looking at itty-bitty ingredient lists - only to find parabens hiding away in products labeled as "pure", "natural", or "allergy-free". The GBG goes a long way towards debunking all of these common buzz word claims and gives the reader straight facts on the whole advertising/marketing game.

Which brings me to the part of the Green Beauty Guide that I love the most - a list (with ratings) of several recommended products grouped by function and suggestions on where these products can be purchased. And for those do-it-yourselfers out there - a list of recipes for making your own green beauty products including information on how to obtain, mix, and store any ingredients you need for the products you want to create.

I highly recommend this book to all women. Even if you don't have allergic reactions to your beauty products like I do, this guide will really help open your eyes to what you are actually putting on your skin everyday and might just inspire you to make some changes to the products you use. Over the just the past few years that I've been aware of this issue, the natural/organic/green cosmetics have really made some steps forward into the mainstream beauty aisles. It can only get better from here.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A few issues., April 30, 2009

By	Jeannine Wegmueller (Temple, NH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book to be a bit trendy. Do American women really have the time to mix their own beauty products? No one I know does. Page 57 warns of celebrity endorsements, yet page 75 refers to all the celebrities who use Suki Naturals. She consistently quotes opinions from the makers of natural products, but they are stated like facts. Conventional products do this too, and it is wrong. She loves Dr. Hauschka mascara in the book, but says it runs on her website. Little things like this bugged me. I did learn about ingredients to avoid so all was not lost.