Guess What? There’s Still Lead in Your Lipstick (Just More Than You Thought)
Well whad’ya know, even though they say it’s not a concern on their website, the FDA has done another study on lead in lipstick. You may recall that back in 2007 they found lead in 23 of the 23 lipsticks they tested—this time they found it in 400.
From TIME:
The worst offenders on the list were Maybelline’s Color Sensation in Pink Petal, which had 7.19 parts per million of lead, and L’Oreal Colour Riche in Volcanic, which had 7 parts per million. Several other brands, including Cover Girl and Nars had products hovering in the 4-to-5-parts-per-million range. (The average lead concentration found across the 400 lipsticks was 1.11 parts per million; click here to see the products ranked.)
The big news is that levels are now higher than the last time they tested. In the 2007 study, none of the lipsticks exceeded 3 parts per million. Never mind that the acceptable level for lead in water is ZERO, that lead accumulates in the body, that women and their boyfriends and their kids end up eating it off their lips, that lead is absorbed through the skin, and last but not least, that any toxicologist worth their salt will tell you that no level of lead is acceptable, because it’s a neurotoxin and proven to wreak havoc even in small amounts.
We’d be lying if this study doesn’t make us want to throw our hands in the air, flip a few birds, and then maybe throw something at a wall. Really, it’s gotten worse? Oh, and hey Maybelline: we meet again! Who wants to guess how many PPMs are in the new 14 hour? Who else is pissed?
OOOMMMGGG… this is terrible. This should be considered a crime (putting lead in lipstick), it’s like giving a poison to someone. Many people still don’t know about these dirty secrets :( I wish only organic products were available in the stores (from Drug stores to big ones like Sephora).
This is another big health concern, to use only safe make-up.
O M G!!This is terrible!!So glad that you post this!I should put the news on my blog since it’s related with what I’ve just recently posted! Love your web! Greetings from Indonesia*
There are many good companies that have organic lipstick. go to your health food store and read the labels.
buy organic whenever you put anything on your face or body because it all gets into your body through your pores.
Rochelle Weithorn, Author, Makeup Artist
Be Beatiful (And Stay Sane) On Your Wedding Day
I was surprised to see some Burt’s Bees on the list and Gabriel Cosmetics. I guess you cannot assume any brand is “safe”
WHOA WHOA WHOA! This is insane! It’s sickening to know that the FDA this isn’t considered a problem, that people shouldn’t be concerned about it. Yeah, I’m pissed – Not cool is an understatement but honestly, I’m speechless. I agree with you Sam, I don’t think enough people know about this – If they did, surely things would be different.
http://iloveublank.blogspot.com/
I was quite surprised to see a Gabriel Cosmetics lipstick on the list. I had thought Gabriel Cosmetics was a reliable organic clean line.
I am so thankful for this blog!! We need to wake up!! These people are trying to kill us!! They wonder why our generation is so sick! My friends used to laugh at me because I was the natural, earthy one. But, they have all since started paying attention to what is going into and on their bodies!!
Also quite surprised by Burt’s Bees fairly high on the list – thankfully not the ones I use, but I agree there can be no more blanket assumptions that an entire line is safe despite some great options within the line.
Yeah, I’m sad about Burt’s Bees too….I guess that’s a hit you have to take when you sell out to Clorox.
Does anyone know where exactly the lead comes from in the lipsticks? I’m guessing it would be in the pigments but I’m wondering how that happens. Are mineral pigments lead contaminated when they’re taken from the ground, or is it something that happens during the manufacturing processes?
Ugh. On the Burt’s Bees thing (or any company with some clean products and some not)…I’ve tried to stop using clean products from not completely clean companies. It does make things harder, but I’m trying to keep my $$ in companies that are fully clean, just to make my little point to the industry. This caused me to switch from Bare Minerals to Alima – and actually I’m glad I did. I’ll have to take a closer look at all the info and double check what companies I’m supporting.
Guh-ross (but not surprising).
Burts bees claims that lead naturally occurs in iron oxides–the dyes used to tint ALL makeup, natural, unnatural, homemade (lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, nail polish, eyeliner, mascara, foundation). Mica comes from rocks, which might also have lead or heavy metals. Artificial colours come from mercury and petroleum (FD&c colours). Carmine comes from bugs (picked by 50,000 indigenous women in Peru). Titanium dioxide, a mineral sunscreen, also makes things opaque, but may have heavy metals in it too.
Lead is bad–it’s been removed from paint and we are not supposed to gnaw on the windowsills in old houses like mine.
You can try the natural and organic brands, but they too have lead and a plethora of other things to worry about, naturally occurring.
OK, I didn’t click to see the products ranked because I assumed that it would just be the Sephora-type brands that I’ve already given up. But now that you’re mentioning Burt’s Bees and Gabriel, I’m going to have to check the list. I’m prepared to be shocked!
“We’d be lying if this study doesn’t make us want to throw our hands in the air, flip a few birds, and then maybe throw something at a wall. Really, it’s gotten worse? Oh, and hey Maybelline: we meet again! Who wants to guess how many PPMs are in the new 14 hour? Who else is pissed?”
If this was a FB status update, I’d “like” it. Unbelievable.
First off, we are talking about minute amounts. The average figure is 1ppm. It isn’t getting worse either. The average measured now is the same as 5 years ago. The previous sample was 20, this one is 400 so it isn’t surprising that the highest individual reading is higher in the larger sample. If you measured the height of 20 men, then measured the height of 400 men you’d most likely find the tallest man in the larger sample. It wouldn’t mean that men in general were getting taller.
I don’t think that the hypothetical toxicologist you have conjured up to comment would say what you have attributed to him. He would probably point out that you would have to eat over 30,000 lipsticks to get to the level that would trigger actual medical concerns. Note that is eat, not use, eat the whole lipstick.
But reassuring as that sounds, it overstates the risk. The lead is present primarily in the form of lead compounds in minerals. So it isn’t like there is free lead dissolved in the lipstick in a form that the body can absorb. In fact it isn’t even entirely correct to say it contains lead. You don’t worry about the chlorine in salt. When an atom of lead is in a molecule it is the properties of the molecule that is important. The lead in lipstick is not in a form that would be expected to be harmful.
On top of that the particles that contain the lead are coated with wax, so that is another barrier to absorption. And while you no doubt do ingest some, you certainly don’t ingest it all.
And if you are really concerned about lead do some research and you will find that there are other much more likely sources. Strawberries for instance contain 0.1ppm of lead. If you are so concerned about lead changing your brand of lipstick gets you nowhere, you have a great many other sources to eliminate first. Good luck!
Excellent post Colin.
Did anyone notice #17? It was Burt’s Bees lip shimmer. I have always trusted Burt’s Bees and had no clue it was owned by Clorox… :(
Yes. It’s pretty depressing. Ugh. We knew they weren’t perfect but not like this :(
So glad I have my Ilia.
Amen to that.
A couple of points:
1. If your favourite tube of lipstick isn’t on the list, it doesn’t mean that it’s lead-free, ie all of the other colours of Burt’s Bees lip shimmers
2. As Collin pointed out, you’d have to eat the lipstick. I looked it up on snopes, and even if you did reapply lipstick 9-31x per day for 55 years, you still would not ingest all of the lipstick: http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/lipstick.asp
Strivectin!
Alcoholics have high blood levels. The reason is that their liver is too busy dealing with booze to get rid of the lead. So one way of reducing your lead level might be to drink less alcohol so as to allow your inbuilt detox system to get rid of it. I don’t know what effect it would have, but I am pretty sure it will be a bigger one than ditching your lipstick.
Sorry that last post should have read
Alcoholics have high blood lead levels. The reason is that their liver is too busy dealing with booze to get rid of the lead. So one way of reducing your lead level might be to drink less alcohol so as to allow your inbuilt detox system to get rid of it. I don’t know what effect it would have, but I am pretty sure it will be a bigger one than ditching your lipstick.
I’m sure there are a great many things that have lead in them, including strawberries. But why not ditch the products that have lead in them and no other benefit to you, besides your vanity, and keep the one that offers sustenance and vitamins? To my mind it’s all about limiting your toxic load in any way you can. So if a company wants me to use their products they can keep the lead out or I’ll go without.
@Candace What you say sounds reasonable but I am not sure it is a practical guide to selecting products. I seem to remember a story going round about 2 years ago that used lead levels to justify a claim that even healthy foods were a problem. Google would no doubt reveal all the details. The nub of the data behind it was that they had found some higher numbers of lead in some organic foods than apparently similar non-organic ones. When you looked into it the whole thing was rather silly and not particularly frightening. I don’t think you could conclude from that particular study that lead levels were in fact higher in organic foods. But nonetheless it probably is the case that organic food has higher lead levels if only because you get lower yields so the concentration of passively diffused components from the soil will be proportionally higher. Does this make organic food less healthy? I would hardly say so.
Yes the lead comes from the mineral pigments used to dye the lipsticks, so the amount of lead in a particular tube is probably colour dependent rather than varying by brand generally. I’m sure all of the organic brands have certain lipsticks with lead as well.
This is really why I’m not overly concerned about trying to find ‘clean’ coloured cosmetics — the organic brands are really not necessarily safer than conventional ones. I tend to be more particular about skincare though.
Yikes. I thought that Burt’s Bees was safe…..I know that their shimmer lipsticks are on the list but how about the rest of the Burt’s bees lipsticks? To be safe, I’ll stick with my RMS and Ilia.
@Candace, I agree about limiting your toxins. I try to make careful choices and control what I can in terms of exposure. I can’t stop breathing the air. But I can chose to not use cosmetics that have all kinds of toxic junk (not just lead).
WOAH!! Burt’s Bees even!! That’s insane!
Wow, many in here actually liked Burt Bees! I didn’t liked burt bees since I once read their ingredients list and they had some ingredients I don’t approve. And, there’s something on that brand that I just don’t like and I don’t know why, they don’t even look reliable to me. Oh and yes, they’re owned by Clorox, so it’s no surprise to me to see them in that list. I’m so glad I don’t use makeup.
I know I’m somewhat late to the party, but I really think everyone who is concerned about this issue should read this article –> http://figandsage.blogspot.se/2012/03/soapbox-is-there-more-lead-in-my.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Figsage+%28Fig%2BSage%29
Very informative, and very right! Basically, I would never recommened anone to buy, let’s say, a Maybelline lipstick in any given situation, for a NUMBER of reasons (I’m organic all the way!), but if you’re incredibly worried about the slightest amound of lead in your lip products…the I’m truly sorry. Because even a company like RMS Beauty (and ILIA, by the way) has stated that if you are indeed using mineral pigments in products you WILL be dealing with TRACE elements of lead, for example. That doesn’t mean it’s dangerous, but of course you can try and limit the amount. If you really want to stay away from such miniscule amounts of lead all together, what you can do is probably to stay away from strongly coloured lip products all together.
I just think people get way ahead of themselves when they see reports like this, instead of seeing the bigger picture…