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European Union continues phasing out animal experiments.The European Union has outlawed the use of animals in seven toxicity tests for cosmetics ingredients.Alamy An amendment to the European Union's Cosmetics Directive today phases out the use of animals in testing for any acute toxic effects of beauty products and toiletries — effects such as eye and skin irritation that might be seen shortly after exposure. Nature News finds out what this entails.What is the Cosmetics Directive and how is it changing? The Cosmetics Directive was introduced in 1976 to enforce high safety standards for cosmetics across the EU member states. It...

Cleopatra's Cosmetics And Hammurabi's Heineken: Name Brands Far Predating Modern CapitalismEgyptian perfume bottle. Could product branding have begun in ancient Egypt? (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2008) — From at least Bass Ale's red triangle--advertised as "the first registered trademark"--commodity brands have exerted a powerful hold over modern Western society. Marketers and critics alike have assumed that branding began in the West with the Industrial Revolution. But a pioneering new study in the February 2008 issue of Current Anthropology finds that attachment to brands far predates modern capitalism, and indeed modern Western society. In "Prehistories of Commodity Branding," author David...

The lip balm shows Christ flanked by two women (Photo: Blue Q) A leading retailer in Singapore has withdrawn a cosmetics range with a Jesus theme after complaints from local Roman Catholics, local media report. The range, named Lookin' Good for Jesus, was on sale at three Topshop outlets in the Asian city state. Catholics complained the cosmetics' marketing was disrespectful, full of sexual innuendo and trivialised Christianity. About 15% of Singapore's 4.4 million population is Christian. The products included a "Virtuous vanilla" lip balm and a "Get Tight with Christ" hand and body cream, featuring a picture of...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful John Edwards inadvertently made the late night comedy shows this year when his campaign spending reports included two $400 haircuts. Now Mrs. Edwards has joined other candidates helping a Concord hair stylist who wants to turn the controversy into help for a good cause. David Holden owns Hair Biz on Main Street, a couple of doors away from an Edwards campaign office. After the Democratic former senator's haircut made news last spring, Holden challenged presidential hopefuls to come in for $400 haircuts of their own, promising to donate all of the proceeds to autism...

WASHINGTON – In the wake of scandals involving tainted food and toothpaste from China comes word of a new concern from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission as well as the Food and Drug Administration – toys, makeup, glazed pottery and other products that contain significant amounts of lead. While lead poisoning among children was once mainly caused by old paint, U.S. manufacturers long ago banned the ingredient. Today, a new rash of high lead levels in the bloodstreams of American kids is being caused by foreign products – mainly from China. So serious is the resurgence of lead poisoning...

It used to be so easy to get elected president. All one needed was a good slogan, a whistle-stop tour, a few posters, political buttons, a favorably disposed smoke-filled room, campaign promises, a booming voice and an invisible madam. Those were the good old days.

An upmarket London beauty salon's claims that bull semen can give hair the ultimate shine is likely to go untried in the Waikato. Hari's, in hoity toity Chelsea, offers a 45-minute Aberdeen Organic Hair treatment involving massaging a protein-rich mixture of bull semen and a plant root into the client's hair. But Julie May, who owns The Salon, in Garden Place, Hamilton, is not keen to try it in her establishment. "I would not want it on my hair. I know what the reaction from customers would be here and I know what my staff would say," she said. "It's...

France's own Dr. Roger Amar, pioneer of the F.A.M.I (Facial Autografting Muscle Injection), will be visiting the United States from January 2 to January 7, 2007 to teach American surgeons and make this innovative procedure available to interested, eligible candidates. Dr. Amar's U.S. base will be New York City, NY and Philadelphia, PA. F.A.M.I is a systematized full-face injection for pan-facial restoration and has been performed successfully on over 500 patients. The procedure can give a genuine restoration and/or rejuvenation without the presence of foreign bodies. Instead of tightening and shortening by incision of unsupported skin, F.A.M.I injects the face...

Transcription from radio/internet broadcast: Pro-life advocates are decrying a grisly new outrage in Europe: Face lifts and cosmetic surgery using tissue from aborted babies are being offered at clinics in places such as Moscow and Rotterdam, and women from around the globe are flocking. In many cases women in third world nations are being paid up to $200.00 US to carry babies up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, when the unborn children are aborted and sold to the cosmetic clinics. An increasing number of these facilities are now springing up in popular vacation spots including Barbados and the Dominican Republic...

Babies -- Bought, Sold and Traded LONDON, SEPT. 17, 2005 (Zenit.org) Abortion advocates' decades-long push to deny or downplay the humanity of the unborn child is bearing fruit. Unborn children are increasingly being treated like consumer products, if recent news stories are an indication. Last Saturday the London-based Times published a story describing how the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in Kharkov, sells baby parts. The list on its Web site offers a variety of cells and other tissues from babies. The institute alleges that the material comes from fetuses...

DUBLIN, Ireland, March 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two Ukraininan doctors, Vadym Lazaryev and Vladymyr Ishchenko, have been seeking asylum in Ireland since 2004, after they were forced to flee their country for exposing appalling human rights abuses of women and unborn children in the Ukraine. The doctors were part of a group working to uncover a macabre system of medical trafficking in the bodies of unborn babies, European Life Network reported today. Doctors were deceiving women into aborting their babies for false "medical" reasons, and then selling the bodies of the children. The children would be aborted live, and...

A Chinese cosmetics company has been using skin taken from the bodies of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, a London newspaper reported. An agent for the company informed customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they had been shot. The agent said some of the company‘s products have been exported to Britain, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts was “traditional" and nothing to “make such a big fuss about,“ the Guardian reported In addition to ethical concerns, there is the potential risk of...

LONDON (Reuters) - North Wales police couldn't believe their eyes when a camera at a notorious accident spot caught a driver using both hands to put on her make-up. Donna Maddock, 22, was filmed as she drove along the A499, one of Britain's most dangerous roads. She held a mirror in her left hand and an eye pencil in her right, leaving the steering wheel to itself. Wednesday, she was fined 200 pounds ($350) with 55 pounds costs and had six penalty points added to her driving license after admitting careless driving at Pwllheli magistrates court. "A car is a...

China Gears Up to Avenge Korean Food Safety Warnings After revelations that freshwater fish imported from China was tainted with the carcinogenic dye malachite green and Chinese-produced kimchi contained parasites and unusually high levels of lead, Beijing appears to be getting ready to avenge its tainted honor. "Inspections have shown that Korean products contain malachite green as well, but the Korean government without notifying the Chinese government, and without a seeking consensus on the issue, simply made an announcement in the press as if Chinese products were the only products with such problems," a Chinese government official said. "If there...

WHY DID Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sign a bill Oct. 7 that requires manufacturers of cosmetics to disclose any ingredients that could cause cancer? This state has so many consumer warnings that people don't even notice them any more, and it's not as if folks don't know there are chemicals in beauty products. Then there's the fact that the bill's author, state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, tried to pass the measure by pushing a "yes" button at the desk of a Republican Assembly member who opposed the bill. (She later apologized, and her voted was pulled.) The point is: Any...

USMC_Vet from The Blue State Conservatives has exposed China in what can only be described as an amoral act of barbarism. He begins... The debate is endless. Is China an economic partner or a strategic adversary with regards to America? Countless hours are dedicated to determining the nature of the relationship. Yet, at the end of the day, it should boil down to basic principle amidst all of the nuanced and persuasive arguments. China, or more accurately it's Chinese Communist Party dictatorship and the environment it cultivates, is a Moral Adversary. Exhibit 'A': Skin of Executed Prisoners Harvested for Cosmetics...

In a new war with the $35 billion cosmetics industry, a Manhattan lawmaker is preparing to seek a ban in New York of the sale of cosmetics with suspected links to cancer, asthma and birth defects. The chemicals — known as DBP and DEHP — are widely used here in nail polish, lipstick, shampoo, deodorant and other grooming products, mainly as a binding agent for colors, but are banned in the European Union because they were deemed hazardous to women. Assemblyman Scott Stringer (D-Manhattan), who's introducing the ban in a bill tomorrow, said he's prepared for a firestorm of lobbying...

Expert: Bargain Cosmetics As Good As Pricey Products Dermatologist Says Price Not Equal To Quality DALLAS -- Women spend a pretty penny on high-end cosmetics, but a North Texas dermatologist recommends bargain beauty products found at the local drug store. "I think it can sort of be akin to buying a first class ticket on an airline. It's nice, comfortable, feels good, have good service, but in the end, you get to the same place," said Dr. Sarah Weitzul, a dermatologist at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. Weitzul sent an NBC 5 crew to two high-end department stores...

OP/ED Mass-scare-a Activists put a scary face on cosmetics by Carrie Lukas Published: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 8:43 PM EST Women can find anxiety everywhere these days, as evidenced by a recent trip down the magazine aisle: "Need aspirin - or an ambulance? How to diagnose the four scariest aches and pains." "Are YOU a great manager?" "Displaying this emotion can endanger your life." And, appropriately enough, "Stress: Is it making you sick?" As if women don't have enough to worry about, some activists are trying to expand the list to include our makeup drawer. This month, a conference held...

Op-Ed - Mass-scare-a Activists put a scary face on cosmetics - Carrie Lukas 24 Mar'05 Women can find anxiety everywhere these days, as evidenced by a recent trip down the magazine aisle:  "Need aspirin - or an ambulance? How to diagnose the four scariest aches and pains." "Are YOU a great manager?" "Displaying this emotion can endanger your life." And, appropriately enough, "Stress: Is it making you sick?" As if women don't have enough to worry about, some activists are trying to expand the list to include our makeup drawer. This month, a conference held at Harvard Medical School...

A San Diego woman has filed a lawsuit against Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Estee Lauder for selling anti-aging creams that allegedly employ false advertising. Debra Scheufler says she wants to make advertisers tell the truth about "age-defying" creams that don't live up to their claims. She filed a class action lawsuit in California. "These products that tout themselves as anti-aging products really target women of my era and kind of suck us into the belief that the clock can actually be turned back, when in fact, it cannot be turned back," Scheufler said. "I wasn't getting any younger."

OTTAWA — Health Canada says cosmetic manufacturers will be required to list the ingredients of their products on labels within two years. The cabinet approved the changes after 10 years of study. Health Canada says consumers have lost hair, suffered serious swelling or sustained eye injuries. It estimates cosmetics users suffer at least 900-thousand minor undesirable effects every year, but says only about 50 cases are reported to authorities. The Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association, which represents manufacturers and marketers, welcomes the regulatory change. It says consumers want to know what their cosmetics are made of. The listing...

NEWYORK (AP) -- Estee Lauder, who started a kitchen business blending face creams and built it into an international cosmetics empire, has died. She was believed to be 95. Lauder died of cardiopulmonary arrest late Saturday at her home in Manhattan, said Sally Susman, a company spokeswoman.

Convicted Rapist and Cosmetics Heir Andrew Luster Begins 124-Year Prison Term Following Capture LOS ANGELES June 20 — Cosmetics heir and former fugitive Andrew Luster began serving a 124-year sentence he had dodged for months by fleeing to Mexico after his conviction for drugging and raping three women. The FBI put the 39-year-old great-grandson of Hollywood makeup legend Max Factor aboard a plane in Mexico and flew him back to California on Thursday, a day after he was captured by bounty hunters. Luster, who fled the country just days before the verdict five months ago, was arrested by Mexican police...

<p>VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - An arrest warrant was issued Monday for accused date-rapist Andrew Luster after the Max Factor heir disappeared over the weekend, officials said.</p> <p>Luster, the great grandson of cosmetics mogul Max Factor, last checked in with probation officials early Friday, said Patrick Neil, division manager of the Ventura County Probation Agency. He did not report in as required that evening and failed to appear in court Monday, Neil added.</p>

Women accused of hogging the mirror before a night out can finally silence their critics - they are quicker at getting ready than ever before. It takes an average of 23 minutes for the modern woman to put on her "face", compared with an average of 90 minutes a decade ago. Point of order. It may not take forever, but it certainly feels like forever - Ivan Furthermore, today's men are more patient than their counterparts of the early Nineties, and are prepared to wait for the results of the transformation. The survey of 1,000 men from across the UK,...