Why a new edition
As is true with every edition of the books I’ve written on the cosmetics industry starting in 1984 with Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal and then Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me, and Don’t Go Shopping for Hair Care Products Without Me, much has changed in the world of makeup and skin. Serious research has increased exponentially on all fronts—from antioxidants, anti-irritants, cell-communicating ingredients, skin-identical ingredients, aquaporins, MMPs, sun protection, and on and on. We know more about why skin wrinkles, how skin heals, what the effects of hormones are on skin function, and how to treat blackheads and acne, not to mention having a better understanding of how sun and oxygen destroy skin.
Cosmetic dermatology and plastic surgery procedures have greatly improved, though the array of options has become more extensive and the risks or benefits more difficult to evaluate. As I compiled the research and began rewriting this book, I was amazed at how far the cosmetics world has advanced as well as dismayed at how much has remained the same. Regrettably, there are still infinite misleading claims, poor formulations, the all-natural farce, the abundance of skin-care myths, and the never-ending fiction that expensive means better.
It was an amazing process to assemble all this information. At first I thought it was going to be a fairly simple update. It turns out that almost 60% of this book was completely rewritten and reorganized. I hope you find it helpful as you try to decipher and decode the complicated world of beauty. I know it can be done, but it isn’t easy. What is certain is that the story must start with information supported by peer-reviewed, published studies—and that’s what you’ll find in this book.