Here’s a quick glimpse into the cosmetic industry and how the people who run it really don’t want you to know what’s really going on with your skin or the products you’re using. This example, though there are countless ones, is courtesy of Patricia Wexler M.D..
Frequently, we review products using sample sizes, which rarely if ever include full ingredient listings (we’re putting it on our face, shouldn’t we know what’s in it even if it’s a sample?), so then it’s up to us to track down the information either by calling the company’s CS number, emailing or traipsing off to the local mall to find the product so we can provide the most useful and accurate review. In this case, I’d sent in an email request for information on a new product to Bath & Body Works, the parent company to Patricia Wexler’s line, to which I received this reply:
“Information regarding the ingredients we use and the manufacturing of cosmetics and toiletry items can be found at your local library, and we encourage you to do some research there.”
The library? Of all the responses Paula has gotten from a cosmetic company this one takes the cake, and from an MD no less. How rude can you get? The email’s patronizing tone aside, Paula’s standard is that we don’t rely on the cosmetic company any way, and personally I must admit that I love that opportunity to assuage my nerdy heart. I’m a big fan of getting lost in the library stacks, so I decided to take Patricia Wexler’s advice and do some research at the library on her brand and the ingredients they use aside from the information Paula provides or would research on her own (I want Paula’s job). Well, wouldn’t you know it, I came up short on library resources that would helped illuminate what ingredients she uses in her products – as if that information could be found easily at the local library!
However, my efforts proved worth the trouble, because I did find this little nugget in Ellen Lupton’s 2007 book Skin: It’s a quote from none other than Patricia Wexler herself, making an unfortunate, sweeping generalization about women’s attitudes toward beauty products containing objectionable ingredients. She says, “When it comes to cosmetic matters, women have a ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell me, please!’ policy” (pg. 41). Well, I’m not one of those women, and nor are the millions of women who read Paula’s books and come to visit our web site www.Beautypedia.com. Perhaps that’s why Wexler has her share of problematic products. She figured as long as her name was on them and her professional reputation intact, women would simply use what she told them to use, and spend their money indiscriminately. Never a good idea, but our readers and visitors already know that, now if only cosmetic company’s like Wexler’s would learn the same thing! Sigh.
