Volume concerned with providing cosmetologists with a basic understanding of chemistry as it relates to the beauty industry so that "teachers and students alike will have more fundamental background upon which to build their knowledge of cosmetic materials." The work contains chapters covering the basic principles of general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry.

Dr. Virginia Charles Prince (1912-2009) was an American transgender activist. She published Transvestia magazine, and founded the Foundation for Personality Expression (FPE) and later the Society for the Second Self for male heterosexual cross-dressers. Prince gained her Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1939 from the University of California, San Francisco. Prince has been considered a pioneer of the transgender community with a long history of literature.

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