Toxic Beauty - Why Are Personal Care Products In Question

Did You Know?
The average woman spends 450 days applying her make-up in a lifetime.
The cosmetic toiletry and perfumery industry in the UK is worth over £6.5 billion annually and provides employment for tens of thousands of individuals.
According to market analysis Mintel, between 2001 and 2006 the cosmetics market in the UK witnessed a huge growth of nearly 40 per cent, exceeding

The value of this market in Spain, Germany and even France, where many of the World's leading cosmetic houses reside. With a whooping 69.7 per cent of British Women using fragrances and 80.4 per cent using lipstick, its evident that today we see beauty products as integral everyday items. But it's not just women ; men too, are also subject to the beauty industry's campaign to coax them into a lifetime of cosmetic consumerism. Rexam, a leading global consumer packaging company state that men are driving market growth. In 2006 the men's toiletries market grew by 5.2 per cent to £881 million. It is no surprise than that globally the cosmetics market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Within the European Union (EU) alone the cosmetics industry directly employs in excess of 150, 000 people . Make -up is a winning money-spinner in any language and not one that's about to go out of fashion, as long as physical perfection is a mainstay of our society. if you are an average consumer, your make-up bag and bathroom cabinet is probably brimming with an assortment of creams, shower gel, shampoos, conditioners, perfumes, cosmetics and other beauty products that promise to enhance your appearance by zapping your wrinkles, revitalizing your hair, masking 'unpleasant' body odours and attracting the opposite sex, among many other pledges.

Messages to this effects are transmitted into our homes every day via television, radio and the world wide web. Advertisers would have us believe that cosmetics are an absolute necessity, without which we become social pariahs. Many cosmetic houses spend more than or as much money marketing as they do on new product development.

Reference: Toxic Beauty / How hidden chemicals in cosmetics harm you: Dawn Mellowship