Keyword: beauty

The Unregulated Wild West of Cosmetics Chemicals

Picture: UrbaneWomenMag/flickr Video Cosmetics and personal care products are among the least regulated consumer products on the market today. Right now companies are allowed to use virtually any product that they want without any safety assessments before putting products on the market. Cosmetic products include makeup, shampoos, face washes, cologne, aftershave and even baby products. Of the 12,000 chemicals used in the cosmetics industry today, some 80 percent have never been assessed for safety. We simply do not know what...

Cameron Russell: 'Looks Aren't Everything. Believe Me, I'm a Model.'

Picture: As seen on TED. Video Cameron Russell has stomped the runways for Victoria's Secret and Chanel, and has appeared in many magazines. But she is much more than just a pretty face. Russell admits she won "a genetic lottery": she's tall, pretty and an underwear model. But don't judge her by her looks. "For the past two hundred years, we have defined beauty not just as health, youth and symmetry that we are biologically programmed to admire. But also as tall, slender figures, femininity and white...

Beauty and the Beast: The 'Othering' of Women by the Beauty Industry

Picture: Cozy Wallet Gillian Schutte - In the wake of the many global revolutionary rumblings over the past two years I have been pondering the prospect of a mass women’s revolt against the male-owned beauty industry that mostly diminishes women to mere objects and creates untold conflict in our psyches. This industry, along with the mainstream media, is premised on beautyism and has employed a very effective tool of  “othering” those who do not fit into the idealised picture of what is pleasing to the...

The Cosmetics Racket: Why the Beauty Industry Can Get Away with Charging a Fortune for Makeup

Picture: Jackie Popp Anneli Rufus - Worth $50 billion in the U.S. alone, with Asia a close second and gaining speed, the $170 billion beauty industry conspires to convince women that our fates depend on our looks which depend on what we spend. In this equation, ugliness -- as society sees it -- can be remedied like a disease, if you just spend enough. Refuse to buy? Your face and fate are your own fault. But is a MAC Haute & Naughty Lash mascara really worth $18? When industry meets beauty, what does "worth" even...