In an effort to protect the public from the risk of contracting mad cow disease from the use of cosmetics, the FDA -- an agency never too quick to do anything in the interests of public health -- has finally told cosmetic makers they can no longer use these potentially tainted ingredients in their products.
Cosmetics makers, however, insist that when they use spinal cord tissue and brain matter from dead cows, such ingredients are already certified free of BSE (mad cow disease). But that can't possibly be true, since the USDA has actually threatened to sue companies that test their cows for BSE. This is the USDA's strategy for ensuring that U.S. cows are healthy: simply ban all private testing, and make sure all BSE tests are run in your own in-house lab where test results can be manipulated to make sure no cows turn up positive.
Let's talk about cosmetics in general for a moment. This is a huge class of products that are dangerous to consumers, ridiculously overpriced, and not needed by people who are healthy in the first place. Want to make your skin look younger? Change your diet. Avoid all metabolic disruptors, stop eating all processed foods, get a daily dose of healthy natural sunlight (yes, sunlight is GOOD for your skin!) and supplement your diet with a daily dose of superfoods. Your skin will shine!
Want your lips to be red? You don't need lipstick, you need blood circulation. And you get that by engaging in daily cardiovascular exercise, breathing exercises and eating foods like ginger and red peppers.
Want to smell good? Don't bathe your body in the cancer-causing chemicals found in perfumes and colognes, and stop poisoning your armpits with commercial deodorants that are loaded with aluminum (a nerve toxin). Stop eating junk food, fast food and soft drinks. Avoid all dietary toxins, and your body smell will greatly improve in a matter of months.
See, I'm a believer in looking good from the inside, not by covering your body with pastes and creams to try to spruce up a system that's actually diseased. If you want to be healthy, it all starts with nutrition and physical exercise. Cosmetics are not necessary at all. In fact, they harm your health (and waste your money, too).