Toxic kiss and poisoned lips?

      I love lipstick and so do many of you. We all use it on a daily base and we apply it several times a day, some of us prefer the lighter and shinier version of a lipstick, the lip-gloss! We all bother with the color and the texture but not many of us bother to know what we ingest because of this beauty addiction.I also never looked much into lipstick as I always have so many other things to look deep into, but as the cosmetic scandals are back and because lately I have developed some chemistry cosmetic obsession I took time to do some lip-service investigation.Lipstick and lip-gloss are often ingested over the course of the day so the impact of any toxin is heightened above and beyond skin absorption levels.
     Both Canada and the European Union regulate allowable levels of heavy metals in cosmetics. The European Union has banned the presence of cadmium, chromium and lead altogether in cosmetics, but there is still a poor regulation regarding cosmetics and that why it was found concerning levels of nine heavy metals in many of the lip products, no matter what brand they were or how much they cost.

                                          Maybelline Color Sensational Pink Petal nr125

        Maybelline Color Sensational by L’Oreal USA, contained more than 275 times the amount of lead found in the least contaminated, and least expensive, brand, Wet & Wild Mega Mixers Lip Balm -- demonstrating that price is not an indicator of good manufacturing practices.L’Oreal makes five of the 10 most lead-contaminated brands in the FDA study.
NARS  lipsticks are somewhere around 25 euro and that doesn't make it safe for your health,specially when you can find it on top 5 most toxic lipsticks with a high level of lead ! Once again expensive and famous cosmetics brands are not always safe.

Lead is a chemical ingredient with symbol Pb (from latin: plumbum). Regarded as a heavy metal and if ingested, lead is poisoning to animals, including humans.
Lead can cause brain damage and nervous system damage, but brands like L’Oreal, CoverGirl, Revlon, MAC add the dangerous substance to their lipsticks.
The researchers tested 32 lipstick brands commonly found in drugstores and department stores and found lead in 24 of them, as well as other toxic heavy metals.They found that 68 percent of the lipsticks exceeded the acceptable daily levels for chromium, a suspected carcinogen, and 22 percent exceeded recommended levels for manganese, linked to nervous system damage.

The top three lipstick brands with high nickel content were Lancome L’Absolu Nu-204, Hearts & Tarts-080V and MAC So Chaud-A82.

       Think you’re safe using a natural or organic lipstick? Think again because NATURAL doesn’t always mean Non-Toxic.Heavy metals are natural ingredients, found in air, water, soil, rock. They’re found in many of the raw materials and pigments used in cosmetics.I guess this is why Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Toffee is not so toxin-free, but half full with lead, being placed on nr.17 in top 400 toxic lipsticks. 
Burt's, which is owned by Clorox, trades on selling "truly natural products that have a positive effect on both you and the world you live in."and in 2007 they promised to eliminate trace elements of lead from their natural mineral sources, but we are in 2012(this is when was done the last survey on their lipstick ) and the trace of lead was even higher than in 2007. They did nothing, completely nothing !

 

      This list is part of the last expanded survey published in the May/June, 2012, issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science, and is not something I invented over the night. The detection limit  is of 0.026 ppm but  the list with HIGH toxic level of lead go on and on with names like Mary Kay, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancôme,Elizabeth Arden and even Chanel.

    The Food and Drug Administration's 2012 test found less than one part per million of lead in Wet n' Wild, Bobbi Brown, and some of  Shiseido brand lipsticks(except NARS ).

The list is just far too long to publish, but if you want to check it out for yourself there’s a link at the bottom of the page .
     You maybe read and ask yourself why I worry so much.Well, living in Europe doesn't make me feel more safe or more comfortable about this, just because we order online, we import cosmetics from USA and Canada.
Europe  currently bans more than 1,300 chemicals. Over the years, the US has banned only 22 chemicals and this makes me feel like I am exposed to the the same toxic danger over here,in Europe as we still import cosmetics from all over the world.
I just can't keep calm and use lipstick, just because I am in Europe and I secretly hope that L'OREAL, Avon and Revlon will be less toxic here.


     Lead can cause brain damage, and it could be on my face every day? Something is obviously broken when it comes to keeping us safe from potential harm, and nobody takes action because this problem dates back to 1976 and now days  is still an issue.

     What am I gonna do about this ? For sure I will avoid using L’Oreal and all the other lipsticks that have a high toxic percentage and I will choose local European cosmetic names like Essence, Catrice, Collistar or others, all of them made and sold just in UE.

This article is based on real information and dates from official sources of  US. Department of Health and Human Services where you can find more information.

 http://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/productandingredientsafety/productinformation/ucm137224.htm
 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-metals-and-cancer-risks-found-in-lipsticks-lip-glosses/
 http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/05/study-lead-metals-lipstick-top-20
 http://www.naturalnews.com/043963_heavy_metals_lipstick_womens_health.html
 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/260024.php