Paula Begoun is a consumer activist and bestselling author who researches cosmetics and hair products. Her work may seem frivolous on the surface, but cosmetics form the basis of a multi-billion dollar a year industry that is almost completely unregulated, leaving consumers to fall prey to outlandish lies.
Product claims do not require any substantiation in the world of cosmetics, and there is no meaningful testing to confirm the efficacy of any of these products. Thus, skin creams are sold for hundreds of dollars per ounce, claiming to erase wrinkles and cure acne completely. Paula tests products and evaluates their ingredients to determine exactly what a product is and what it can do, and what harm it might pose as well, providing an invaluable service to those of us who are interested (or obsessed, as my less charitable friends might suggest) with this part of life.
Ms. Begoun started out her working life as a makeup artist and aspiring actress. However, she quickly discovered that makeup was her strength far more than acting, and she developed a customer base including the rich and powerful in Washington, sometimes supplementing her income by selling makeup at department stores. However, she found that selling makeup wasn't her calling - she was fired repeatedly for telling customers that they didn't need a particular product, for refusing to lie about products' capabilities, and generally refusing to play the game she was expected to play.
She then decided to go into business with a partner, opening makeup stores that didn't sell products that made ridiculous claims or that cost ridiculous amounts of money. The concept attracted a great deal of media attention, and eventually she begame a fixture of the local, and later national, media. She ended up selling her share of the company to her partner, remaining on the local television station. She stayed for two years before she finished her first book, Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal, which she published herself.
Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal was an overview of the workings of the cosmetics industry, and in response to requests from readers, she decided to publish her reviews of cosmetics in her book Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me, which is soon to be released in its sixth edition and is mostly comprised of reviews of almost every skin-care and makeup line that exists. She eventually wrote its companion in the world of hair, Don't Go Shopping for Hair Care Products Without Me and a compendium of in-depth information about skin and hair care (without product reviews), The Beauty Bible.
Her books, her bimonthly newsletter Cosmetics Counter Update, and her website at cosmeticscop.com all serve to break through the world of myths that surrounds cosmetics and bring real information to consumers. Her advice is firmly sensible, basing all of her opinions on published scientific research, and debunking the notion that it is necessary to spend a great deal of money on cosmetics.
She focuses heavily on the mythology that surrounds skincare, emphasizing that not everyone needs a moisturizer, that more expensive products are not necessarily better, that skin care products can't erase wrinkles, and that natural ingredients in cosmetics provide no benefit, and can occasionally be harmful. She encourages consumers to become literate in cosmetic ingredients and to beware of the extremely unbalanced information they hear in fashion magazines, dermatologists' offices (many of whom now sell cosmetics for profit), and from the helpful salespeople at your local Neiman Marcus.
In addition she sells her own line of skin care products, all fragrance and dye free, all reasonably priced and none making extravagant claims. She doesn't, however, heavily push her own products, but instead frequently recommends other lines that she is impressed with. Her works are one of the few sources for real, honest evaluations of products and information about cosmetics. She frequently reminds people that "Inner beauty is priceless. Outer beauty doesn't have to be."