A Consumer\’s Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients: Complete Information About the Harmful and Desirable Ingredients in Cosmetics - You wouldn’t eat something without knowing what it was–don’t you want to take the same care with what you put on your face, hair, and body? Find out what’s in that shampoo, makeup, toothpaste, lotion, or perfume here, with more than 6,000 entries, organized alphabetically. Cosmetics are barely regulated these days, leaving it up to you to learn what those strange-sounding names mean and how they might affect you. For example, did you know these intriguing tidbits?

• Abietic acid, a texturizer in soaps, is harmless when injected into mice but causes paralysis in frogs.
• The American Medical Association frowns on medicated makeup, because their potential to do harm often outweighs their benefit.
• Mayonnaise is as effective a dry-hair conditioner as the expensive preparations.
• Milk is a good face wash, but you’d better rinse it off well, or rancidity will give rise to bacteria that will cause pimples.

Virtually every chemical found in toiletries, cosmetics, and cosmeceuticals—from body and face creams to toothpaste, hand lotion, shaving cream, shampoo, soap, perfume, and makeup—is evaluated in this book, including those ingredients marketed as being all-natural, for children, and for people of color. The alphabetical arrangement makes it easy to look up the ingredients in the products you use.

A review from Amazon.com
I use Ruth Winter’s books on COSMETIC INGREDIENTS, MEDICINES, and FOOD ADDITIVES as reference books and find them quite helpful and informative. It is absolutely amazing how many ingredients can be listed on the back of a jar of cleansing cream, a tube of hand cream, or a can of soup. Simply identifying the salt and sugar isn’t enough. We need to know about food substitutes, as well as other ingredients, many of them added to improve the appearance of the substance for sale, that can harm us and/or interfere with prescription drugs.

Now, you may be concerned about what is in your prescription medication, but if you are like most of us, you probably take over-the-counter drugs without a thought. After all, if they don’t have to be licensed and disseminated by a pharmacy, they must be okay. Right? Wrong!! There is something called a synergistic effect. For example, consumers have been warned recently about the interaction between ibuprofen and statin drugs. Unfortunately, by the time the government steps in, many people may have been harmed. It pays to be informed and Winter’s books are a good step in that direction.

I am a big fan of herbal remedies, but they need to be subjected to research and review in the same way synthetic drugs are studied. Heck, Parsley, can cause skin irritations.

If you want to acquire a little light on the subject of ingredients, consider buying all Winter’s books. She has been published in Family Circle and Reader’s Digest magazines as well as Homeopathic and Herbal publications.

Her books are so effective, I wonder how long it will be before the government kills the messenger, not by silencing Winter, but by withholding the identity of the contents of various products and reversing the `truth in labeling’ and `organic measures enacted in the past. Of course, they can and do go to the other extreme and ban items that are only harmful if they are misused.

Related Link: Cosmetics Australia Compare and buy cosmetics from Australia