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I was pretty excited when I found and was offered a review copy of “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.”

The book is a intense look at the safety concerns that many beauty and skincare items, from the point of view of one of the co-founders of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Stacy Malkan.

Bringing Out Concerns

I’ve swing between wanting effective products and wanting the greenest possible products. As I’ve tried to green my life I’ve gone through tons of “green” and “safe” face products. Lots of them were mislabeled. Many of them didn’t’ work. Some of them were fantastic.

I found a big list of ingredients that I wanted to stay away from because of health concerns. It was slightly disturbing to learn that some of the brands who sport a pink ribbon for breast cancer also have products that contain pthalates and other concern causing ingredients that have been linked to cancer.

Let’s take a step back here. I will agree with the notion that some natural and green brands will use this type of information to fear-monger. In reality, a lot of natural-based ingredients can make people with sensitive skin freak out. Just because it is natural doesn’t mean that you can’t have an allergic reaction to it.

So on one hand, I was throwing out freaky old nail polish, but I took all of the book with a grain of salt. Thankfully, the author does point out that a lot of the ingredients that she talks about may not have a huge affect in the small quantities that you see in cosmetics. However, there is the idea that there is no reason to expose yourself to that to begin with, no matter the risk.

Like anything, the ideas in this book are something to weigh in your mind. Yeah, I threw out some nail polish and I will continue to avoid SLS (sodium laurel sulfate) and similar ingredients because I am person that would rather not take the risk.

But, and it’s a big but, I will not get rid of products like my Avene Retrinal, which works perfectly well and is so effective that it is worth the risk to me.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

One slight thing to keep in mind. Malkan, like I said above, is a co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. A good portion of this book is spent on the story of the CFSC, which really is an intriguing story. You are not really signing up for a book like The Skin Type Solution, which gives you specific things to go out and buy.

You’re getting the story of a worthy cause and why they are working for it. I am glad I read it, because I’m a big fan of researching your purchases and I do use the database set up by the CFSC.

Overall

A great quick read at just over 150 pages, if you’re concerned at all about what you put on your face every day, I would get the book. Prefer to stick with what you know and not get alarmed by all the things that could cause you cancer? Keep walking.

Bonus!

Want to read the book after listening to my rambling? Like a true greenie, I’m going to pass on my copy. It’s got some dog-ears, but totally readable. Just tell me your favorite beauty product (green or not) in the comments and why you’ll use it regardless. I’ll randomly pick someone on July 18 and you’ll get this lovely copy.

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I got all excited when Brushups became available, because at the time I was spending a lot of weekends and nights over at The Boy’s house.

A toothbrush that I can put in my purse? Sold.

I never really got around to trying brushups, but I recently got a chance to check out Dentaburst, a new product along the same lines.

Kinda like gum

It comes in a packet not much bigger than a fancy gum pack, except you open it and there are little packets. Rip open the packet, and you get a little sleeve, made of a plasticky material. Think the bibs at the dentist’s office.

So you slip the sleeve on your finger and brush away.

Have you ever found yourself somewhere without your toothbrush and just used toothpaste on your finger and brushed away? This is kind of the same. You can’t really sense a pasty feel at all, however.

Minty goodness

You would expect the little plastic sleeve to be…not very minty, but this is altoid minty. I tried these guys after a particularly garlicky dinner, and they certainly worked.

It was like gum. Really. But…not. I’m not really sure how they can remove much plaque since the surface was more or less flat, but maybe I’m missing something.

To buy or no?

I think I would buy a package to take with me on trips or maybe stash in my purse. I’m slightly bothered by all the packaging though. A cardboard box to house the little sleeves and the cardboard box comes in another box.

Find out more about Dentaburst, and the Be ready Lounge, their online community, by clicking here.

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My hair is pretty shiny, so I’m not sure I was the best person to review this item, but I wanted to see anyway. Plus, I had an hour to kill at the store while my oil was getting changed and I had to buy something.

Paul Mitchell also makes a shine booster that can be used once a week in the shower. I was more tempted by 10 minutes once every six weeks, as is the case of Herbal Essences All That Shine Clear Shine Booster.

Easy to use

This was just like dying your hair at home. You take some stuff, put it in another bottle, shake it up and put it on your damp hair. Wait. It burns a little. Rinse it off.

To tell you the truth, I found it weird that this was like dying my hair. I always imagined deep conditioning/shine stuff to be more like leaving conditioner on for a really long time.

I have pretty short hair, so I only used about half the bottle (the stuff was colored, oddly).

So before my hair looked like this (forgive my goofy look and the slight fuzziness)

And after ( I also styled it like I usually do) my hair looked like this:

Big difference? I don’t really see it. The Boy said that my hair was marginally shinier, but it really just cast a uniform glow to my hair. Not that my hair wasn’t uniformly shiny all over before, but it had some damaged patches, etc.

Let’s look up close.

I don’t know. It looks….about the same to me. Perhaps this is because my hair is already pretty healthy and shiny to begin with.

Overall

Was it worth the $8? Maybe. My hair does has a more even tone to it now than it did before. We’ll see how long it lasts.

I would probably say that this product is more worth it to someone with extremely damaged, dull hair. I think the difference might be pretty noticeable then.

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