Busting the Beauty Myths –
What the Cosmetic Companies Don’t Want You to Know!

Are you tired of wasting your money on cosmetics and hair care products claiming incredible results, but delivering absolutely nothing? If you’re like me, you’ve spent countless hours paging through magazines and watching late night TV trying to find those miracle products that will transform your face, perfect your hair, make you drop-dead gorgeous. Oh, I don’t even want to know the money (oh, the money) I’ve spent over the years chasing the fantasy…and, unfortunately, fantasy is exactly what it is.

You see, I bet you didn’t know (like me!) that much of what the cosmetic companies claim about this product or that product goes largely unchecked by government or industry regulators.

Surely not, you say! Sadly, it’s true :-(.

In a BusinessWeek article (November 30, 1994) An Ugly Truth About Cosmetics - Beauty-seekers Beware: Largely unregulated ads for skin creams and wrinkle removers often have dubious claims backed by spurious science "...the cosmetic industry is largely left to monitor itself and the Food & Drug Administration gets involved only when products have adverse reactions or change the structure of the body, consumers are left to their own devices to monitor such claims."

"A lot of [these claims] might be worded to sound scientific, but people need to realize that wrinkles don't just disappear as claimed," says Allen Halper, senior compliance officer in the Office of Cosmetics & Colors at the FDA.

The FTC, which monitors advertising for unfair or deceptive claims, isn't that aggressive with the cosmetics industry either. "Our priority is to ensure that if a product is claiming a health benefit that there are enough trials to back that. If there are general appearance-enhancement claims, those are not high in our prosecution list," says Heather Hippsley, assistant director for the FTC's advertising-practices division."

And if that’s not bad enough, it gets worse. Not only do the exaggerated claims go unchecked, but safety of ingredients in cosmetics are in question, too.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the government entity that is responsible for regulating chemicals in cosmetics in the United States. Unlike its strict regulation of the food and drug industries (although recent events may even call that into question), its control over the cosmetic industry is much different. According to its web site:

• The FDA cannot regulate or require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before they are released to the marketplace. Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients are reviewed or approved by FDA before they are sold to the public.
• The FDA does not have the authority to require manufacturers to register their cosmetic establishments, file data on ingredients, or report cosmetic-related injuries. The FDA maintains a voluntary data collection program, and only those cosmetic companies that wish to participate in the program forward data to FDA.
• The FDA is not permitted to require recalls of cosmetics. They can only monitor a company once it voluntarily decides to conduct a product recall.
• If the FDA wishes to remove a cosmetic product from the market, it must first prove in a court of law that the product may be injurious to users, improperly labeled, or otherwise violates the law.

So what’s a girl to do?

Fortunately for us there’s help from consumer advocate, Paula Begoun. As somebody who has been researching the cosmetics industry for over 20 years, Paula Begoun has made it her life-long quest to provide objective product reviews and feedback about the cosmetics industry. She has worked at cosmetics counters (and been fired for refusing to make false claims about products), as a professional makeup artist for television, and after many years of friends, family and clients asking her for advice, she decided to publish what she has to say! Her first book, Blue Eyeshadow Should be Illegal, caused quite a stir in the 80's with interesting insights about the cosmetics industry from this "Ralph Nader of Rouge.” Thousands of women loved the book and wrote to her after reading it. Their letters helped her realize the need for a consumer advocate (or "Cosmetics Cop" as she has been called) in the confusing sea of beauty products, and she has been writing ever since.

Paula’s mission is to help women look and feel beautiful without spending a fortune, and her motto is "inner beauty is priceless but outer beauty doesn't have to be!"

She is the best-selling author of Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me, The Beauty Bible, and Don't Go Shopping for Hair Care Products Without Me. I have all three books and refer to them constantly. Visit her website, CosmeticsCop.com, for product reviews and lots of interesting articles that help to demystify this very mysterious and often misleading industry. You can also sign-up for her free report DrugStore Doubles – The Best in Beauty from Chanel to Cover-Girl. The advice is money-saving.

I also wanted to mention that Paula has her own reasonably priced (those are my words) line of cosmetics and hair care products (Paula's Choice). I have tried the One Step Face Cleanser, Extra Care Moisturizing Sunscreen and the 2% Hydroxy Acid Lotion. I like them all and am very pleased with the amount of product that you get - really a great value. Note that the products are fragrance free and are not tested on animals And if you or anyone you know has tried any of the other Paula's Choice line, drop me a line and let me know how they worked.

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