Useful

I've used her books many times to look up cosmetics or skin care products before shopping for them. ( )

Very good resource book! The book mentions all the brands of cosmetics,and all information abt them. It is quite an eye opener as to ingredients in many of the the products we apply to our face! Read and learn!
I have changed several brands and tried new ones based on information in this book. You can also be updated when they have new information.
If you use cosmetics and beauty products,this is a must read for you health and wallet! ( )

The 3rd edition, years ago, was a godsend to me. Following Paula Begoun's recommendations cleared up my complexion. Turns out that expensive stuff I was using caused way more problems than any of it solved. The product ratings go out of date as manufacturers change their formulae, but the basic advice holds true. ( )

(For Reference rather than straight reading)

This is a great book with useful info. The author is a credentialed and well-reputed consumer advocate for beauty products. She has a lot of info on her website, cosmeticscop.com. She looks at a ton of products and says whether or not there are irritating ingredients in them, if the products live up to their claim.

The nice thing is, she does give favorable reviews for products. She's not just someone criticizing other people's products. She is recognized in the field and some companies, including Dove for instance, changed their formulations based on her recommendations/reviews. She finally went on to create her own product line b/c people said "Since you know what healthy skin needs, why don't you create a good, basic line." So she did.

Based on her recommendations, I realized the reason I had "super-sensitive skin" was because I was using products that had irritants in them. When I switched to things she recommended, it was like my skin totally changed and was no longer irritated at all. She doesn't believe in hype.

The book has very easy ratings that include smiley faces, neutral faces, and sad faces. If something has a smiley face and a check mark as well, it's a Paula's Pick --- the highest recommendation she can give. There are also dollar signs thrown in along with smiley faces for products that are pricey --- so you could have a smiley face with three dollar signs to mean it's good but very expensive, or even a sad face with dollar signs which means it contains bad things for your skin and it's a rip-off too. ( )