What a wild ride it’s been! I’ll be processing for weeks to come, but for now I’ll report: The crowds really turn out to hear about the Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. More than 1,500 people attended rallies and book readings in 10 US cities for the inaugural “Not Just a Pretty Face” national book tour.

My favorite encounter was at the last stop, Elliot Bay Book Store in Seattle. A gray-haired, hippie-looking guy walked up to me before the event and announced that he didn’t want to be there. Toxic chemicals in cosmetics didn’t have much to do with him, he said, but he got stuck with the job of videotaping the event for local cable. I couldn’t help watching him as I spoke (was he sleeping?) and at the end he was the first to raise his hand (oh god). He said that the talk brought tears to his eyes, and he saw that this problem of toxic chemicals is connected to all the other problems - war, poverty, global warming, species extinction - created by bottom-line-driven corporate capitalism that has lost touch with the true needs of people. On that note, and to really get your head spinning about the scope of the problems, check out this 20-minute film by my friend and favorite s-hero Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff.

Also check out some of the press coverage from the “Not Just a Pretty Face” tour: Minneapolis Star Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, KUOW, Missoula Independent, CommonGround, and the Washington Post’s Sprig.com. Stay tuned for more book tour stops in 2008… Stacy Malkan