Book Review: It's okay to have lead in your lipstick by Perry Romanowski and Randy Schueller

Weeks ago, while I was browsing through the Beauty Brains, I stumbled upon the book "It's okay to have lead in your lipstick" written by the founders of The Beauty Brains themselves, Perry Romanowski and Randy Schueller. The title was definitely intriguing as I too have this notion of how "bad" of an ingredient lead is.

The authors have impressive background of the cosmetics industry. Perry Romanowski is a cosmetic chemist, inventor, scientist, instructor, founder of Chemists Corner blog and training program. Meanwhile, Randy Schueller is a former Sr. Director of Hair and Skin Care R&D for Alberto Culver and Unilever, while also being a member of the National Association of Science Writers. The authors are basked in the cosmetic industry, and the quality of information in the books proves it.

I purchased the Kindle edition for 5 USD, which is a bargain, considering the amount of beauty product information, tips and secrets it has which can help me save a lot of money and some time Googling for some ingredient descriptions. The book addresses questions candidly while being backed by the authors' solid experience in the cosmetics industry.

Upon reading the book, I learned more about the following (I'm also adding my favorite articles from each chapter, which is hard as I have many):
- Clever "marketing" information used by beauty companies: "The 10 most misleading cosmetics claims"
- Product safety, and which ingredients are truly scary and which are just used for scaremongering: "Are you confused about alcohol in your cosmetics"
- A handful of beauty myths: "Why don't they make SPF 200 sunblock?"
- Greenwashing in the cosmetic industry: "5 reasons cosmetic companies continue to greenwash"
- More weird beauty ingredients: "Will snake venom smooth wrinkles?"
- More beauty + science resources, basically a list of several websites. Hence, more easily accessible sources for me, yay!

This booked has steered me in the right mindset as I plan to replace some mid-range Korean and Japanese products I use with drugstore and/or local brands. Or should I want to try or retain an expensive product, I might be able to find "alternatives" by studying and comparing ingredient lists.

I recommend this book to any beauty addict who may want to save money and even concerned "green" cosmetics consumers who want to know the truth about cosmetic products.