Beware of Toxic Heavy Metals in Your Makeup

Is your makeup slowly poisoning you? Heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury, aluminum, cadmium, manganese, and nickel can lead to organ toxicity, neurological problems, and contribute to cancer growth. Heavy metals can be found in a lot of things. In small amounts, they are harmless. They can, however, accumulate if you are using a lot of products with heavy metals or if you use such products daily.

Lead is actually found in most lipsticks

The FDA released a 2012 report that found lead in 400 brands of lipsticks. They considered the amounts negligible since they are controlled and people ingest little of their lipstick. This should be noted for anyone sensitive to lead or are suffering from certain conditions. Surprisingly, the cheaper Wet 'n' Wild Mega Mixers Lip Balm Bahama Mama contains the least lead of the 400 brands while several L'Oréal and Maybelline lipsticks contained the most amounts of lead, up to 7.19 parts per million. So if you're using Maybelline's Color Sensational Pink Petal lipstick, don't try to lick or eat it!

Lead can be found in lipstick

How to stay safe

Do your research. Read the ingredients, investigate the ingredients and buy from brands you are familiar with or are regulated. Note that just because it is unlisted in the ingredient list doesn't mean it is not there. Avoid makeup of unknown origins. Be particularly wary of lipsticks because you can easily accidentally ingest it. Lipsticks dyes from unregulated sources can contain high amounts of lead.

Fake makeup from eBay can be a lot more dangerous than you think. They don't just fake a brand name, they could add abnormally high amounts of heavy metals to imitate the deep pigmentation of more expensive makeup. Stay safe, makeup lovers!

1 comment:

  1. Ahh I'm so worried about toxicities in cosmetics, but it's so hard to spend the money on good quality, natural stuff.

    Ada | thespianxx