­Learn more about cosmetics and your health by picking up a book or checking out a blog. Here are some we like and recommend.

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Cosmetics Blogs
Parenting Blogs
Green Living Blogs­
Toxics Blogs
Books­

Cosmetics Blogs­

Beauty Schooled
This "investigation of the price we pay for pretty" explores the social, health and cultural impacts of the beauty industry. The writer is attending beauty school to answer puzzlers like "what happens when these products aren’t subjected to pre-market safety testing. And how a 13-year-old feels when her mom takes her for a bikini wax. Or why many of us would rather not make eye contact with the woman we’re paying to scrub our feet."

Organic Diva
A great source reviewing products made by signers of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics that also rate low on the Skin Deep Web site and fully disclose their ingredients.

Organic Makeup and Skincare
A no-frills blog dedicated to organic cosmetics and homemade make-up tips.

Parenting Blogs

Green and Clean Mom
Eco-savvy tips and tricks by and for moms.

Green Moms Carnival
A network of mommy blogs that unite around a single environmentally conscious theme each month.

Organic Mania: Organic and Green Mom
Blogger and mom Lynn shares her research and views about organic and green products, with an eye for making the environment cleaner and healthier for us all.

SafeMama
Covers child safety, product recalls, health and well-being with a focus on eco-conscious products and tips for parents.

The Smart Mama
Written by a mother of two, children's environmental health advocate and environmental attorney, the Smart Mama covers toxic chemicals that can impact kids' long-term health.

Green Living Blogs

Alternative Consumer
A collection of bloggers from San Diego to London post reviews and news about the latest eco-friendly products. The blog isn’t exclusively about cosmetics, but it is well written and useful for those looking for information on how to embrace a green lifestyle.

Crazy Sexy Life
Created by a cancer survivor and subject of the documentary, Crazy Sexy Cancer, this site is all about healthy living. Favorite topics include eating vegan, yoga, animal rights and the connection between human and planetary wellness.

Ecosalon
A blog declaring that “environmental consciousness doesn't have to mean granola, that style and sustainability belong in the same sentence, and that an eco-friendly lifestyle can be both ethically satisfying and fashionably fun.”

Ethical Consumer
A Canadian blog with tons of useful information on products, green businesses and environmental news.

Get Green Be Well
Focus on healthy, sustainable living, including tips for purchasing goods for home, baby and beauty.

Green Options
Green Options is a community and network of blogs focused on personalizing sustainability.

Green Living Online
As the title suggests, this online version of the magazine includes lots of useful and user-friendly information on green living.

Leafy Green
Leafy Green, devoted to green and environmentally friendly products, promotes green living and healthy alternatives to the mainstream by sampling products and publishing reviews.

Practically Green
Take the quiz to get your own personalized green-living recommendations. The blog covers many aspects of green choices, with a focus on families.

Queen of Green
The David Suzuki Foundation’s blog on green living, with practical tips and answers to your questions on cosmetics, cleaning products, food and more.

Toxics Blogs

Brockovich I-Village
The famous single mom and thorn-in-industry’s side has her own blog, with information on toxins, raising healthy kids and a healthy dose of shameless self-promotion.

Enviroblog
A great resource on toxins in the environment with a habit of keeping up with the latest news, published by Campaign co-founder Environmental Working Group. Great go-to source if you’ve read something about a chemical and want to know more.

Books

The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens our Health and Well-Being (North Point Press 2008), by Nena Baker.
Investigative journalist Nena Baker explores the chemicals getting into our bodies, the everyday products that deliver the chemicals and the government policies that allow these potentially harmful products to be sold.

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Chelsea Green Publishing 2007), by Mark Schapiro.
Exposed shows that, short of strong government intervention, America will lose whatever claim it has to commercial supremacy. Increasingly, its products are equated with serious health hazards.

Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (New Society Publishers 2007), by Stacy Malkan.
This inside story of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, written by Campaign co-founder Stacy Malkan, received a 2008 Silver Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Purchase though this link and the Campaign will receive a portion of the proceeds. More about this book.

Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on our Children (Random House 2008), by Phillip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff.
In this shocking and sobering book, journalists Alice Shabecoff and Philip Shabecoff directly and definitively link industrial toxins to the current rise in childhood disease and death. This is an eye-opening account of a country that prizes money over children's health.

Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Running Press 2007), by David Steinman.
Steinman uncovers the links between petrochemical dependence and the health of the planet and its inhabitants. Safe Trip to Eden includes a chapter on the cancer-causing chemical contaminant 1,4-dioxane in baby bath products.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Basic Books 2007), by Devra Davis.
Dr. Davis shows how the War on Cancer has targeted the disease and left off the table the things that cause it — tobacco, alcohol, the workplace and other environmental hazards.

Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things (Counterpoint Press 2010), by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie.
For four days, these authors ingested and inhaled a host of chemicals via everyday products like cosmetics. The book — the testimony of their experience — exposes the extent to which we are poisoned every day of our lives, from the simple household dust that is polluting our blood to the toxins in our urine from run-of-the-mill shampoos and toothpaste.

There's Lead in Your Lipstick (Penguin Canada 2010), by Gillian Deacon.
We know all about lead in lipstick! The research was pioneered by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in 2007, then followed up by FDA. So what more is there to say? Gillian Deacon finds plenty. In her brave book, Gillian, an award-winning broadcast journalist in Canada, details her own struggle with cancer and her journey to find safer products, and presents in-depth research about what's wrong with the way beauty products are made today.