By Kate Cameron
For many of you this may come as a shocker, but mineral makeup is not good for your skin. It's occlusive oil, and its molecular structure is too big to penetrate your skin. It sits on top of your skin, clogging and stretching your pours. All the hype around mineral makeup being all-natural is not true. While mineral makeup may be better than mainstream department store brands, most of the mineral makeup brands are still laden with chemicals, dyes, preservatives, artificial fragrances and unnecessary fillers, like cancer-linked
parabens. Some contain parabens that have been banned from being used in children's products in Denmark.
As I was trying to carrel several children away from the toy department section at my local grocery store I took a quick look at some of the ingredients on the labels of mineral makeup. The first one I picked up was Maybelline (Maybe it's Maybelline, sorry, hard not to get sucked into the catchy jingle), but I'm not falling for the jingle or their claim that their mineral powder is 100 micro-minerals (so I'm supposed to view this as 100% micro-minerals and believe it is good and safe for me) to quickly discover it contains plastics like polyethylene and Teflon. An employee came over to me to see if she could help. I explained I was looking for mineral based products with no additives. She pointed out 3 products immediately stating all 100% natural mineral makeup as advertised. Sheer Cover, Tarte and Marcelle Minerals. I nicely pointed out to her that Tarte's first ingredient is polyethylene, PLASTIC, with the next ingredients polymers, nylons and further down the link cancer-linked retinyl palmitate and formaldehyde releasing preservative imiclazolidinyl urea.
And they market themselves, as "high performance naturals" Are you kidding me? And the reason Marcella Minerals give your face nice porcelain sheen is because it contains a mineral salt called bismuth oxychloride, which is a by-product of lead. Manufacturers aren't supposed to put lead in their products, but when Canada allows more than double the amount of lead in cosmetics than California allows, it ends up in our products (Americans too).
Have you heard of nano minerals? I hadn't, but now I have one more thing to add to the list of ingredients to avoid. This stuff is in powder formed makeup. In order to make the powder application smoother and more natural looking, minerals such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide (found in most sunscreens) are broken down into itty, bitty particles called nano particles. Environmental Health Perspectives have found that inhaling nano particles of titanium dioxide can trigger long-term lung inflammation and cause oxidative stress. And, dusting these particles onto your face sends them into your lymphatic system within minutes. There is also new evidence that it may damage brain cells.
And don't be fooled by buying mainstream liquid foundation because you can't "inhale" it. These foundations are in a whole new category of bio accumulative environmentally persistent siloxanes, cyclomethicone, oxybenzone and petrochemicals.
I need a little concealer under my eyes. If I've had broken sleep the night before thanks to one or more of my little darlings, all my friends if I'm managing all right with all the children. Nice! If you do suffer from dark circles on more of a regular basis make sure you are getting enough vitamin B12 and Vitamin K. Sometimes dark circles can be a sign of kidney deficiency.
Lipstick and Gloss
Personally, I'm not a lipstick gal, but whenever the economy takes a dive you know what most women do? They buy lipstick! For real, no joke! Wonder why? Analysts say that when we can't afford designer bags, jeans or shoes, we go a bit excessive on the cheaper beautifying stuff. But these cheap pick me ups, come with a much bigger price. They are all loaded with lead contaminants, especially the red ones. Every lipstick brand that you can buy in a store contains lead. In 2011 Environmental Defense found that many red lipsticks failed Canada's draft heavy-metal standards for lead of 10 ppm, not to mention getting a failing grade in our standards for arsenic.
While I don't' wear lipstick, I do wear lip-gloss - love my lip-gloss! But over the counter lip-glosses are dripping with heavy metals. If you thought your sexy red lipstick is bad, Environmental Defense's testing showed that lip glosses contain higher levels of lead than any other makeup tested, and 10 times higher than Health Canada permits! And these luscious lip-glosses have 25 times more arsenic than Heath Canada allows! So, don't be fooled when they brag about a few natural ingredients like honey or jojoba oil, they are laden with all the big bad boys too: formaldehyde, palm oil, oxybenzone, parabens, fragrance, petroleum, dyes, phthalates, and triclosan.
Lip balm goes a long the lines of lip gloss, and I ALWAYS have my favourite, chemical free lip balm with me. Stay clear from over the counter chapsticks (Blistex, Lypsyl... etc.) The main ingredients are petroleum, paraffin and petrol-based mineral oil.
parabens. Some contain parabens that have been banned from being used in children's products in Denmark.
As I was trying to carrel several children away from the toy department section at my local grocery store I took a quick look at some of the ingredients on the labels of mineral makeup. The first one I picked up was Maybelline (Maybe it's Maybelline, sorry, hard not to get sucked into the catchy jingle), but I'm not falling for the jingle or their claim that their mineral powder is 100 micro-minerals (so I'm supposed to view this as 100% micro-minerals and believe it is good and safe for me) to quickly discover it contains plastics like polyethylene and Teflon. An employee came over to me to see if she could help. I explained I was looking for mineral based products with no additives. She pointed out 3 products immediately stating all 100% natural mineral makeup as advertised. Sheer Cover, Tarte and Marcelle Minerals. I nicely pointed out to her that Tarte's first ingredient is polyethylene, PLASTIC, with the next ingredients polymers, nylons and further down the link cancer-linked retinyl palmitate and formaldehyde releasing preservative imiclazolidinyl urea.
And they market themselves, as "high performance naturals" Are you kidding me? And the reason Marcella Minerals give your face nice porcelain sheen is because it contains a mineral salt called bismuth oxychloride, which is a by-product of lead. Manufacturers aren't supposed to put lead in their products, but when Canada allows more than double the amount of lead in cosmetics than California allows, it ends up in our products (Americans too).
Have you heard of nano minerals? I hadn't, but now I have one more thing to add to the list of ingredients to avoid. This stuff is in powder formed makeup. In order to make the powder application smoother and more natural looking, minerals such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide (found in most sunscreens) are broken down into itty, bitty particles called nano particles. Environmental Health Perspectives have found that inhaling nano particles of titanium dioxide can trigger long-term lung inflammation and cause oxidative stress. And, dusting these particles onto your face sends them into your lymphatic system within minutes. There is also new evidence that it may damage brain cells.
And don't be fooled by buying mainstream liquid foundation because you can't "inhale" it. These foundations are in a whole new category of bio accumulative environmentally persistent siloxanes, cyclomethicone, oxybenzone and petrochemicals.
I need a little concealer under my eyes. If I've had broken sleep the night before thanks to one or more of my little darlings, all my friends if I'm managing all right with all the children. Nice! If you do suffer from dark circles on more of a regular basis make sure you are getting enough vitamin B12 and Vitamin K. Sometimes dark circles can be a sign of kidney deficiency.
Lipstick and Gloss
Personally, I'm not a lipstick gal, but whenever the economy takes a dive you know what most women do? They buy lipstick! For real, no joke! Wonder why? Analysts say that when we can't afford designer bags, jeans or shoes, we go a bit excessive on the cheaper beautifying stuff. But these cheap pick me ups, come with a much bigger price. They are all loaded with lead contaminants, especially the red ones. Every lipstick brand that you can buy in a store contains lead. In 2011 Environmental Defense found that many red lipsticks failed Canada's draft heavy-metal standards for lead of 10 ppm, not to mention getting a failing grade in our standards for arsenic.
While I don't' wear lipstick, I do wear lip-gloss - love my lip-gloss! But over the counter lip-glosses are dripping with heavy metals. If you thought your sexy red lipstick is bad, Environmental Defense's testing showed that lip glosses contain higher levels of lead than any other makeup tested, and 10 times higher than Health Canada permits! And these luscious lip-glosses have 25 times more arsenic than Heath Canada allows! So, don't be fooled when they brag about a few natural ingredients like honey or jojoba oil, they are laden with all the big bad boys too: formaldehyde, palm oil, oxybenzone, parabens, fragrance, petroleum, dyes, phthalates, and triclosan.
Lip balm goes a long the lines of lip gloss, and I ALWAYS have my favourite, chemical free lip balm with me. Stay clear from over the counter chapsticks (Blistex, Lypsyl... etc.) The main ingredients are petroleum, paraffin and petrol-based mineral oil.
For chemical free skin care products and safe beauty tips visit my blog: http://botanicalbeautifulbody.com/
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