Beauty

[katkitty]

Environmental Defence tested 49 different face makeup items, including five foundations, four concealers, four powders, five blushes or bronzers, seven mascaras, two eye liners, 14 eye shadows, and eight lipsticks or glosses. Their testing revealed serious heavy metal contamination in virtually all of the products:

96 percent contained lead
90 percent contained beryllium
61 percent contained thallium
51 percent contained cadmium
20 percent contained arsenic

Further, each product contained an average of two of the four metals of highest concern (arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury), which are designated as toxic in Canada because of proven health concerns. Most of the products also contained an average of four of the eight metals tested (arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, beryllium, thallium, selenium).

Heavy metals are only one type of toxin found in most cosmetics. If you use conventional makeup on a daily basis, you can absorb almost 5 pounds of chemicals into your body each year -- and that's without adding in body lotion, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner and other personal care products!

Many of these chemicals have been directly linked to cancer or are known to cause damage to your brain, reproductive system and other organs, and this is no exaggeration. Though it may sound hard to believe, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does NOT systematically review the safety of personal care products.

Of the 10,500 ingredients used in your personal care products, only 13 percent of them have been reviewed for safety in the last 30 years, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis -- and those that have were reviewed by the Cosmetics Ingredients Review, which is run by the cosmetics industry!

The FDA even states:

"Cosmetic products and ingredients are not subject to FDA premarket approval authority, with the exception of color additives … Cosmetic firms are responsible for substantiating the safety of their products and ingredients before marketing."

Cosmetic database- What's in your make-up?

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

Environmental Defence, Heavy Metal Hazard: The Health Risks of Hidden Heavy Metals in Face Makeup (PDF)

http://environmentaldefence.ca/sites/default/files/report_files/HeavyMetalHazard%20FINAL.pdf

Study exposes cracks in cosmetics' foundation

http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Study+exposes+cracks+cosmetics+foundation/4788260/story.html

Poison Kiss: Lead in Lipstick

Women are being warned that some lipsticks could contain lead. The warnings come in the wake of a U.S. ruling that a class action suit can proceed against luxury goods giant LVMH, the manufacturer of Dior Addict Positive Red lipstick, which has been found to contain lead.

The lipstick was among dozens of lipsticks found to contain lead when the U.S. group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics commissioned an independent laboratory to test lead levels in 33 brand-name lipsticks.

Sixty-one percent of the lipsticks tested had detectable lead levels. One-third of the lipsticks exceeded accepted U.S. levels of lead for products that are ingested. The Dior lipstick was found to contain more than twice as much lead as is allowed.

Last year it was revealed that many lipsticks sold in the United States contain lead. And these were not off brands from a discount store, either.

More than half (61 percent) of 33 name-brand lipsticks tested in September 2007 contained lead levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm). And one-third of them had more lead than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy.

The FDA has not set a lead limit for cosmetics, including lipstick

You ingest it when you wear it (the average women ingests 10 pounds of lipstick in a lifetime). But it can contain as much lead as the manufacturers see fit, and it doesn’t have to say so on the label.

Among the U.S. lipsticks with the highest lead levels were:

L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” –- 0.65 ppm
L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” –- 0.58 ppm
Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” –- 0.56 ppm
Dior Addict “Positive Red” –- 0.21 ppm

The issue has surfaced again in the media because it was recently ruled that a class-action lawsuit against LVMH, the manufacturer of Dior Addict Positive Red lipstick, can proceed.

It will be interesting to see how the case turns out, considering that …

It’s Not Illegal for Lead to be in Your Lipstick

Anything Goes When it Comes to Cosmetics

Lead is just the beginning of the toxins that exist in your makeup and cosmetics. It says right on the FDA’s Web site:

"The regulatory requirements governing the sale of cosmetics are not as stringent as those that apply to other FDA-regulated products... Manufacturers may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances, to market a product without a government review or approval."

This is not so in many other regions such as the European Union, which banned the use of chemicals that may cause cancer, mutation or birth defects. Apparently the FDA has no problem with these, because they get the green light here in America.

Ingredients to watch out for include:

Paraben, a chemical found in underarm deodorants and other cosmetics that has been shown to mimic the action of the female hormone estrogen, which can drive the growth of human breast tumors.

Phthalates, plasticizing ingredients (present in nearly three-quarters of 72 products tested by the Environmental Working Group), which have been linked to birth defects in the reproductive system of boys and lower sperm-motility in adult men, among other problems.

Mercury, used in mascara, gels, and even eye drops, this metal can damage your brain function. Look for it listed as “thimerosal.”

Petroleum byproducts, used in makeup, shampoo (even baby shampoo), face creams and more, these chemicals have been linked to cancer.

Methylisothiazolinone (MIT), a chemical used in shampoo to prevent bacteria from developing, which may have detrimental effects on your nervous system.