Look Great, Live Green by Deborah Burnes changed my buying habits big time. You will find that she will help you wade through the jungle of bodycare products and explore alternatives that are safer and better for the environment. Cosmetics are now a $60 billion a year industry, is largely unregulated, despite the fact that skin is our largest organ, readily absorbing much of what we put on it.
After establishing some historical context for the beauty industry, Burnes schools consumers in how to accurately decode confusing ingredient labels, alerting us to the ways companies camouflage what is actually in their products. She then surveys the alternatives. Here, Burnes is refreshingly not a purist—unlike a lot of living green books, she realizes we all have different standards and work within different budgets, and gives her advice with this in mind, offering a range of options under the categories of ‘good,’ ‘better,’ and ‘best.’
Burnes is the founder of her own product line, Sumbody, and while she does list her products, she lists many others, as well as providing a number of simple and affordable home recipes. The book also includes thoughts and tips on cosmetic activism, which continues to gain traction in the world of toxic causes.
