toxic ingredients

Cosmetics Ingredients: Harmful, Safe, or Who Knows?

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | Beauty and Awareness, General | 1 Comment

Is there lead in your lipstick? Are there harmful chemicals in your skin creams? The answer we all hope for is “No,” but the reality is actually not so simple.

Do we really know what is in our cosmetics? Lead has a sordid history of being used in cosmetics due to its pigment-enhancing properties, but, now despite being known to be a neurotoxin, lead is still making an appearance in cosmetics today. If you remember the scare over lead in lipstick from a couple years ago, you will understand that we cannot totally rely on cosmetics ingredient labels to tell us everything that is actually in our beauty products.

The lead in lipstick controversy stemmed from a 2007 report, “Poison Kiss,” from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, that tested lead levels in 33 lipsticks, and revealed that lead was detected in two-thirds of those lipsticks, including some made by L’Oreal, Maybelline, and Cover Girl, though lead wasn’t listed as one of the ingredients. The resulting consumer response to the report and findings of lead in lipstick ranged from fearful outrage to, surprisingly, stiff dismissal.

Those who dismissed the findings as “un-concerning,” cited reasons such as the personal insignificance of the reported lead levels or even a concern that the study was not peer-reviewed by the scientific community. However, it is not hard to understand why many consumers were actually shocked and upset by the findings of lead in popular lipsticks. Regardless of any opinions about the report itself, I’m sure all of us would like to have zero levels of lead in cosmetics rather than some lead, if given a choice.

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