With the publication of How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels, green beauty visionary Oyéta Kokoroko has written a vital book that will empower consumers, beginning formulators, and retailers to make informed and educated choices about product selection within the beauty sphere. Trying to assess the quality of a beauty product before you purchase it can be mystifying and intimidating; most of us would benefit from an insider’s guidance. From ingredient lists that read like an organic chemistry textbook to a broad array of marketing claims (e.g., natural, green, clean, non-toxic, free of X, clinically tested, clinical grade, etc.), cosmetics labels make it difficult to determine whether a given product is worthwhile and/or suitable for our particular needs. We struggle to discern what really matters, what claims are exaggerated, and where should we pay the most attention. Enter Oyéta Kokoroko, and her fabulous new eBook How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels. This eBook provides all the guidance and education consumers need to read, understand, and evaluate confusing cosmetics labels. Author Oyéta lets readers in on an important secret about assessing cosmetics–one that she has learned through years of formulating skincare: the quality of a product is directly related to the quality of its ingredients and some ingredients are more important than others. Thus, decoding cosmetics labels is an imperative step in the assessment and selection process. As the book points out, the claims may lie, but the ingredients do not, and knowing where to focus our attention is the first step.
What makes understanding ingredient labels a bit tricky for most of us is that the cosmetic industry uses its own standard language to list ingredients, called International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI), that is anything but intuitive. INCI names are almost like another language. Fortunately, How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels truly walks us through the process of decoding labels, giving us step-by-step instructions and even practice exercises (with answers in the Appendices so you can check your work). Readers will also gain the knowledge necessary to be able to understand the different parts of formulations by categorizing ingredients based on their purpose. Living up to its name, the book teaches how to decode cosmetics labels and provides access to several insider tools and resources (e.g., some brilliant decoding software and more) that will make demystifying labels easy and virtually effortless. With the tools provided here, readers can translate the names of INCI ingredients into plain English in no time at all. How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels makes technical information about ingredients and formulation understandable and accessible even to those of us who do not have a strong background in formulation or cosmetic chemistry.
In this book, Oyéta generously shares her insider knowledge and perspective from years in the industry. What is more, she educates in a truly balanced, non-biased way, showing a level of discretion and evenhandedness that is hard to find in beauty. How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels is fullydevoted to educating and empowering consumers without even a hint of a hidden agenda. First, Oyéta does not promote or even mention her own line or products in any way. This sort of restraint is rare in books written by founders! Additionally, although written by a green beauty luminary, the book does not at all malign or vilify mainstream cosmetics. In fact, the book compares natural and conventional cosmetics in a radically evenhanded way, offering insights about the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. For instance, the book points out that although mainstream cosmetics use more lab-made ingredients, this is not necessarily a negative, as some of these synthetic ingredients are identical to their natural counterparts and may even be more sustainable. The book also presents that while natural formulas are typically more eco-conscious than conventional, they are also likely to degrade faster than their conventional counterparts due to a shorter shelf life. How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels has an entire chapter filled with evenhanded nuggets such as these, and the entire book is written with this sort of integrity. Anyone seeking truth amid all the distortion in the beauty industry will find this book refreshing and informative.
An invaluable reference, How to Decode Your Cosmetics Labels will enable readers to see through the wild, unrealistic promises and greenwashing tactics that plague the cosmetics industry to make truly informed choices and selections. The eBook will also make product selection easier for specific skin types, as it contains a particularly useful Ingredients Directory that lists common active ingredients—in both plain English and INCI– organized by the user’s desired skin goal. Whether the issue is dehydrated skin, dark spots, or something else, the Ingredients Directory will provides a list of special actives tailored to the user’s specific concerns. These lists will help readers identify solid, targeted formulations that suit their needs. Although readers will get a lot out of their first pass through this book, How to Decode Your Cosmetics Ingredients is also a wonderful reference to keep on hand to come back to for anyone who wants to better understand the heart of cosmetic products, their ingredients. In conclusion, Oyéta’s eBook is an important and generous contribution to the beauty canon and an essential read for the beauty consumer seeking honest and transparent information to empower his/her choices.