Monday, July 19, 2010 — People have been asking me how the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics was so fortunate to hook up with Annie Leonard to create the upcoming film, “The Story of Cosmetics.” It was luck mixed with a bit of divine intervention.  I’m lucky enough to live in Berkeley in the first place  (where Annie herself convinced me to move years ago) and was at a party where I heard about early plans to create a series of short films based on “The Story of Stuff” — Annie’s viral video that has been viewed more than 12 million times and inspired front-page stories in New York Times, LA Times, and coverage on Colbert and Good Morning America.

The SOS team was looking to work with established campaigns to delve further into key issues raised in the original film, and they thought the cosmetics story would be an ideal way to illustrate the problem of  “toxics in, toxics out” — i.e., when you put toxic chemicals into products like, say,  baby shampoo, you end up with toxic baby shampoo … and toxic babies (“duh,” as Annie says in the film).

From there, the fundraising prowess of SOS executive director Michael O’Heaney and CSC coordinator Lisa Archer got the project off the ground, and the creative genius of Annie, Jonah Sachs and Louis Fox (masterminds of the viral hits the Meatrix and Store Wars) gave it flight. Watching these three work together on filming of Story of Cosmetics was truly a highlight of my career. A huge thanks also to Erica Priggen, Allison Cook, Heidi Quante and the rest of the staff at Free Range Studios and Story of Stuff, and to the whole team at Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: Lisa, Mia, Jane, Janet, Stephenie, Shannon, Marisa, Cindy, Alex, Leeann, Bill, Nancy, Ian, Jamie, Genevieve and to ALL of you who work with us. What a priviledge to work with such a talented and dedicated group of people!

We are all proud to present to you the Story of Cosmetics (coming July 21) and ask you to blog, Facebook, tweet it out to everyone you know. And please join us in giving the beauty industry a makeover!

NEW: See Parents magazine August issue for major story about cosmetics, chemicals and your health.