The one ingredient that’s probably sitting on your beauty shelf now – that you should beware of!

Lead – yes, you heard that right!

Contrary to popular culture and popular belief, your makeup products may cause your more harm than any good. In fact, there could be something alarming in your favourite tube of luscious red lipstick. Chemicals, heavy metals, bacteria and other toxic elements are turning up in skincare, make up and hair styling products. 

 

In the last decade, FDA tested hundreds of lipsticks following an alarm raised by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, only to find out the deadly truth – 100% of the lipsticks investigated had lead content. The brands that tested positive for high lead levels include global beauty mansions such as – L’Oreal, Dior, MAC, The Body Shop, Maybelline and Cover Girl. What’s even more unsettling is that brands Burt’s Bees that are known to be “clean” had some lip products that showed a considerable amount of lead content. 

 

It is important to understand that there is no safe level of lead content. In other words, there needs to be zero lead in order for a product to be considered absolutely safe. Lead is a neurotoxin that is harmful even at small doses. The experts from the medical fragments are clear that any level of lead exposure is unhealthy. 

 

Considerable levels of lead exposure has been linked to a platter of health concerns:

• Neurotoxicity : This is directly linked with language, learning, brain damage, lower IQ and other behavioural patterns. 
• Reduced fertility in both men and women
• Menstrual irregularities and hormonal changes

 

The bad news is – your lipstick can contain lead without it being mentioned in the ingredients list. That is because the manufacturers do not intentionally add lead into the product. Instead, lead is considered a “contaminant” that is present in trace amounts in the base materials and pigments that constitute the product.

 

The good news is – there are some other ways you can find out the lead properties in the product. Practically speaking, the darker (especially red) your lipstick is, the greater is the amount of lead present. The other way is to directly contact the brand or the manufacturer as they might have conducted the testing beforehand. 

 

In other words, ladies, until you find yourselves the holy grail “lead-free” lipstick, do not lick your lips, do not munch on anything while wearing lipstick, do not kiss anybody and we promise you, you’ll be just fine!