Makeup History for the Last 100 Years

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Thank goodness for the internet and documented makeup history. For the last 100 years or so, we believed absolutely everything that was thrown at us from advertising.

We could not check, we could not verify, we could not consult, we could not hear whistle-blowers ... we were little chicks in a nest with our mouths wide open 24 hours a day.

By Educating Yourself, You Will Avoid Toxins in Cosmetics

Thankfully that has changed and we are getting smarter. Information is power for the consumer and people that are selling rubbish don't like informed consumers.

Makeup History from 80 years ago

A book titled, 100 000 000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs, and Cosmetics was written by Arthur Kallet and F.J. Schlink and released in 1933.

Kallet and Schlink argue that many products would not be sold if truthfully labelled.

They suggest that extensive reform and overhaul in government regulation and inspection of the food and drug industry is needed in order to adequately protect consumers from corporations and manufacturers who do not place the health of the consumer before profit.

Examples are beauty products, which in the first quarter of the 20th century were found to contain arsenic, lead and even radium - the health effects of which were not understood or known to consumers at the time.

Cosmetic Toxins Can Kill You Slowly (Unknown Artist)

For example, the true label for a pineapple pie, the book argues, would be closer to this:

  • "corn starch-filled, glucose-sweetened pie made with sub-standard canned pineapple, artificial (citric acid) lemon flavour and artificial coal tar colour"

This is not how Grandma would have made it and it certainly does not contain any natural ingredients that we would expect.

The book points toward the pharmaceutical market in the United States, citing extensive lists of drugs which were often the subject of extensive media promotions, as 'wonder-drugs'. Unfortunately, many of them did not have any effect on the conditions they purported to cure, and often carried serious side effects that were not revealed to consumers.

"If the poison is such that it acts slowly and insidiously, perhaps over a long period of years (and several such will be considered in later chapters), then we poor consumers must be test animals all our lives;

and when, in the end, the experiment kills us a year or ten years sooner than otherwise we would have died, no conclusions can be drawn and a hundred million others are available for further tests"

In the early 1900s, formaldehyde was frequently added by US milk plants to milk bottles as a method of pasteurization due to the lack of knowledge regarding formaldehyde's toxicity.

Formaldehyde is also used to control bacteria in some mascaras.

Formaldehyde Causes Cance

Nearly forty years later, in 1972, John G. Fuller published his expose of the food, drug and cosmetic industries, honouring Kallet and Schlink by entitling his book 200,000,000 Guinea Pigs: New Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics.

In the Introduction, Fuller wrote, "Today, nearly forty years later, the situation is worse, not better ... Time bombs are ticking away in several dark corners... It is 1933 all over again — multiplied by logarithms. The difference is only a matter of form."

Below is a great little video clip of makeup history from You Tube. It's a cosmetic TV advert from the 1950's. The advertisers (Dorothy Gray) taint dirt with radiation that is strong enough to be measured by a Geiger counter. Imagine trying to do something like that today?

The point of the video is - to what extremes will cosmetic companies go to sell their products?

Unfortunately this gross arrogance still happens today. Many countries around the world will only investigate or remove cosmetic ingredients from the public once there is evidence of harm.

Starting to feel like a guinea pig yet?

Should you believe everything?

Of course not. If you are reading this then you probably have access to the internet. Research whenever you can, consider other articles about makeup history, check other views and sources and make your own conclusions. The more you know, the better your chances for choosing what is right for you.

Tupperware parties will certainly not help you - these can be borderline pyramid schemes where the focus is not what is best for you.

Social gatherings in honour of trusted friendship are easily manipulated for the purposes of selling you makeup that may not be in your best interest.

This is not about bashing institutions or who is right or who is wrong or trying to be sensationalistic ... this is about knowing what is in your makeup, trusting your judgement and finding the best makeup for you based on what you know … not what “somebody else” knows.

We are in makeup history right now

We are making history as we live. Eighty years ago, people were doing the same thing, had the same thoughts, the same feelings and the same fears.

There are ingredients in our cosmetics today that may well be banned in 80 years time because they have been found to be toxic.

Understanding makeup history shows us that what we know now, may not be all what there is to know. Ingredients that have been around for hundreds of years have stood the test of time.

The test of time in today's world for new cosmetic ingredients is often no longer than 90 days.

You will have no recourse once you have toxins in your body or your skin is damaged. 

Smoking will Kill You

There is no point in winning a 10 million Dollar lawsuit for makeup/toxin damages when you are knocking on deaths door? Do not fool yourself, your rights to civil damages will not turn back the clock.

For decades, the tobacco industry vehemently denied that their products contained addictive ingredients, caused lung cancer and other diseases. In the recent years, they have paid out hundreds of millions of Dollars in fines, compensation and lawsuits.

Cigarette packets in most parts of the world now contain clear warning signs that their products cause sickness, disease and death. How many people had to die before the world got to this point?

How have these dead people benefited from these multi-million Dollar lawsuits?

Ignorance is no excuse

One way or another, we are all guilty ... how many times have we said "I did not know"?

Ignorance is No Excuse

Your natural makeup advantage is what you know yourself ... and you would not be reading this all the way to the end if you were not serious about doing something about it.

Learning the methodology for Natural Advantage Makeup is simpler than you realise ... increase your awareness of makeup ingredients by keeping a note of the ingredients that are kind to your skin (forget the ones that are not).

Makeup ingredients that are kind to your skin are a lot fewer than the ones that are not.

Quote of the Page

“When I was your age...I wish I'd known that I already had everything I needed within myself to be happy, instead of looking for happiness at beauty counters.”

Ilene Beckerman



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