I did multiple interviews a week for years, with people all around the world, with three translators, via email and Zoom and in person. I interviewed every type of person that’s mentioned: auditors, NGO people that directly interact with and record the deaths of child laborers, farmers, retail associates, cosmetic chemists, lawyers, CEOs. I didn’t talk to the assassin [one vignette features the point of view of an assassin who kills a lawyer representing peasant farmers in Honduras] – unfortunately, they were not easily accessible.

Ultimately, we are all participants and complicit in how beauty is produced throughout the world. I wanted the reader to be immediately implicated in the story, like you are the final girl in this horror movie.

Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2025/nov/07/beauty-industry-arabelle-sicardi-book