{{short description|2019 film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Toxic Beauty | image = Movie_poster_for_Toxic_Beauty_documentary.jpg | caption = Film poster | director = Phyllis Ellis | producer = White Pine Pictures | cinematography = Iris Ng | editing = James Yates | writer = | music = Robert Carli | distributor = | studio = Eggplant Picture & Sound<br>White Pine Pictures | released = {{Film date|2019|04|28|Hot Docs|ref1=<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://womenandhollywood.com/hot-docs-2019-women-directors-meet-phyllis-ellis-toxic-beauty/|title=Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Phyllis Ellis – "Toxic Beauty"|website=womenandhollywood.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hotdocs.ca/p/rushonly/2018|title=Hot Docs|website=www.hotdocs.ca}}</ref>}} | runtime = 91 minutes | country = Canada<br>United States | language = English }} '''''Toxic Beauty''''' is a 2019 Canadian-American documentary film about exposure to dangerous substances from commonly trusted beauty products such as baby powder. Directed by Phyllis Ellis and produced by White Pine Pictures, the film premiered at the April 2019 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. The documentary follows the experiences and motivations of beauty product consumers as well as the experience of cancers caused by brand-name cosmetics, including but not limited to Johnson & Johnson. Features include interviews with scientists, doctors, and lawyers about the issues surrounding a substandard regulation system, and scientist Mymy Nguyen's journey of discovery as she seeks to replace commonly used products with safer ones.<ref name="vogue"/>
==Content== ''Toxic Beauty'' addresses what it calls an attitude of silence around carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting substances found in previously approved and popular cosmetic items in the US cosmetics market. The documentary follows UC Davis graduate Mymy Nguyen after she has recovered from a benign cancer attributable to inappropriate use of talcum powder. Nguyen attempts to identify and replace various cosmetic items she has come to depend on while seeking further awareness and knowledge on reparation, or lack thereof, from the cosmetics industry.<ref name="Harvard">{{cite web|url=https://sites.sph.harvard.edu/mahalingaiahlab/people/mymy-nguyen/ |title=Mymy Nguyen |publisher=Mahalingaiah Lab, Harvard |accessdate=19 April 2020 }}</ref><ref name="vogue"/>
The film interviews doctors, lawyers, and scientists to explore how products are made, and compares a long struggle with the cosmetics industry to decades of public pressure for reforms against the tobacco industry in the 1960s. It claims that thousands of dangerous chemicals in popular cosmetic products in the USA are unregulated, not even requiring appropriate warning labels when toxic substances have been identified.<ref name="vogue"/><ref name="treehugger"/> The relevant legislation is based on 1930s law and favors a "postmarket regulatory system", even though the act is updated and enforced to cover similar issues in food and drugs.<ref name="vogue">{{cite web |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/toxic-beauty-documentary |author=Jessica Defino |title=The New Toxic Beauty Documentary Asks: Are Skin-Care Products the New Cigarettes? |work=Vogue |date=29 January 2020 |accessdate=19 April 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301224514/https://www.vogue.com/article/toxic-beauty-documentary |archivedate=1 March 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> With the assistance of environmentalist author Rick Smith, Nguyen explores the effects of certain substances on the body as well as the effectiveness of recovery.<ref name="treehugger"/>
One of the victims featured in the documentary turned down a $1.3m settlement offer from Johnson & Johnson so that she could publicise her experience with a court case.<ref name="treehugger">{{cite web |url=https://www.treehugger.com/organic-beauty/toxic-beauty-film-explores-how-cosmetics-are-making-us-sick.html |author=Katherine Martinko |title='Toxic Beauty' film explores how cosmetics are making us sick |work=TreeHugger |date=7 October 2019 |accessdate=19 April 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323032443/https://www.treehugger.com/organic-beauty/toxic-beauty-film-explores-how-cosmetics-are-making-us-sick.html |archivedate=23 March 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>
One of the main issues in the documentary surrounds the popular Johnson & Johnson baby powder product. Johnson & Johnson denied knowledge of carcinogens in its baby powder, but were revealed to have known about them since the 1960s after being sued by 22 claimants in 2018, incurring $4.7 billion in damages. Subsequently, a further 11,700 claimants pursued damage claims against the company.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/johnson-johnson-knew-decades-asbestos-lurked-its-baby-powder-n948016|title=Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that asbestos lurked in some of its baby powder|website=NBC News|date=14 December 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Bever |first1=Lindsey |title=Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $4.7 billion to women who say baby powder gave them cancer |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/07/13/johnson-johnson-ordered-to-pay-4-7-billion-to-women-who-say-baby-powder-gave-them-cancer/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=28 July 2018 |language=en |date=13 July 2018}}</ref>
==Director== Director Phyllis Ellis, a Canadian Olympian in the 1980s, tries to make a connection between cosmetics and a higher rate of hormone-related illnesses among African-American women, including infertility and premature birth, and lack of regulation in hair care products which are promoted to target African-American women in the US.<ref name="goop">{{cite web |url=https://goop.com/beauty/skin/toxic-beauty-documentary-and-clean-swaps/ |title=Endocrine Disruptors in Perfume, Carcinogenic Baby Powder? A New Documentary on the Beauty Industry |date=21 November 2019 |publisher=Goop |accessdate=19 April 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226203905/https://goop.com/beauty/skin/toxic-beauty-documentary-and-clean-swaps/ |archivedate=26 December 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Critical reception== Jessica Defino for ''Vogue'' described ''Toxic Beauty'' as a documentary "that many will find shocking".<ref name="vogue"/> NOW Toronto's Samantha Edwards says that after watching ''Toxic Beauty'' "you'll rush to your bathroom to check the labels of your shampoo and conditioner."<ref name="nowt">{{cite web|url=https://nowtoronto.com/movies/reviews/hot-docs-toxic-beauty/ |author=Samantha Edwards |title=Hot Docs review: Toxic Beauty |publisher=NOW Central Communications Inc. |date=22 April 2019 |accessdate=26 April 2020 |archiveurl = |archivedate = }}</ref> Dorothy Woodend for ''The Tyee'' says, "Ellis’s film blows the lid off the issue with the precision of a Tomahawk missile."<ref name="tyee">{{cite web|url=https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/04/19/Toxic-Beauty-Ugly-Business-Pretty/ |author=Dorothy Woodend |title='Toxic Beauty': The Ugly Business of Pretty |publisher=The Tyee |date=19 April 2019 |accessdate=26 April 2020 |archiveurl = |archivedate = }}</ref> On Rotten Tomatoes the film has {{a or an|{{RT data|score}}}} Critics Consensus score {{RT data|as of|y|m|lc=y}}.<ref name="rtomatoes">{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/toxic_beauty|title=Toxic Beauty|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date={{RT data|access date|df=dmy}}|archive-url=|archive-date=}}</ref>
==Awards== ''Toxic Beauty'' won an award from the Calgary International Film Festival for the best 2019 Canadian documentary.<ref name="ciff">{{cite web|url=https://www.calgaryfilm.com/films/2019/toxic-beauty/ |author= |title=TOXIC BEAUTY |publisher=Calgary International Film Festival |date=2019 |accessdate=20 April 2020 |archiveurl = |archivedate = }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *{{Official website|https://www.toxicbeautydoc.com/the-film}}
Category:2019 films Category:2019 documentary films Category:American documentary films Category:Canadian documentary films Category:English-language Canadian films Category:2019 English-language films Category:2019 Canadian films Category:2019 American films Category:English-language documentary films Category:Films about cosmetics