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B-Organic Makeup 11/25/08 6:11 PM Page 66

67Organic Beauty

Lead in your lipstick? Tiny powder particles that lodge in your lungs?

Mercury in your mascara?

By Virginia Sole-Smith Photography by Rob Hawthorne Makeup by Jen Murphy

All Makeup by Afterglow Cosmetics

There’s been a lot of scary news about your makeup bag lately. So it’s nosurprise that consumers everywhere, whether they shop the Whole FoodsMarket’s Whole Body department or Barney’s New York’s cosmetic coun-ters, are clamoring for cleaner cosmetics—and snapping up anything thatcalls itself natural or organic. But is there any guarantee that an organiceyeliner is really safer for you than your regular brand?

“Unfortunately, no,” says Ann Garrity, the founder of Organic Divas, anonline shopping resource for what she dubs “sensible cosmetics.” “Organicjust doesn’t mean much on makeup right now and there are a lot of com-panies profiting from consumers’ confusion.”

Is Your Makeup

Hazardousto Your Health?


68 Organic Beauty

IN FACT, there are no official definitions fornatural or eco-friendly makeup, and plenty ofloopholes that companies can use if they wantto describe a product as organic, primarily be-cause the U.S. government regulates cosmet-

ics so much less stringently than food. Considera pint of organic strawberries. The U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture has a comprehensive set ofstandards behind its “Certified Organic” labelthat cover everything from the soil where thosestrawberries were grown to how they werepicked, handled, packaged, and processed beforethey reach your supermarket. The same goes forany consumer product derived from a plant—sowhether you buy those strawberries raw, in a jarof tasty preserves to spread on your toast, orcrushed and mixed into a tube of luscious,strawberry-scented lip gloss, the company sell-ing the strawberries has to meet USDA stan-dards in order to call them organic.

USDA Certified?But unlike the farm-fresh berries and organicjam, that lip-gloss obviously won’t containstrawberries alone. “No cosmetic can be totallyorganic; there will always be some amount ofsynthetic material added to preserve the perish-

able ingredients, hold the formula together, andgenerally make the product do what you want itto do,” explains Joel Tickner, ScD, assistant pro-fessor of community health and sustainabilityand project director for the Lowell Center forSustainable Production at the University ofMassachusetts in Lowell. “So makeup can con-tain some ingredients that come from organicsources, but it can also contain other materialsthat could pose health and safety risks.”

But while the USDAsets the standards for theuse of its “Certified Or-ganic” seal, it doesn’t regu-late any of those other cosmetic ingredients. Thatjob falls to the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-tion—except they don’t actually have the author-ity to do much regulating, say Tickner and otherpublic health experts. The FDA doesn’t have anofficial definition for “organic” as it applies tocosmetics. It also doesn’t require cosmetic com-panies to do any pre-market testing to prove thesafety and efficacy of their products before theyhit store shelves. “Most people think that if theygo to the store and buy a cosmetic, it has beentested and shown to be safe, but this is not al-ways the case—even if it happens to be labeledorganic,” says Tickner. In fact, only 11 percent ofthe over 10,000 ingredients used in beauty prod-ucts have been reviewed for safety. And the fewingredients that have been assessed for safetywere mainly studied by the Cosmetic IngredientReview (CIR), a board of dermatologists,chemists, and other scientists paid by the indus-try’s Personal Care Products Council. Not sur-prisingly, this industry-funded panel concludesthat ingredients are more often safe than not.

Even if the CIR does determine an ingredient istoxic, it doesn’t have the authority to requiremanufacturers to stop using it in their products,which means companies are on the honor sys-tem to phase out chemicals and find safer alter-natives. And the FDA can’t force them to cleanup their act unless they receive evidence that aproduct is “harmful as used.”

And neither agency claims that organic

cosmetics are necessarily safer or more effectivefor consumers. Finding natural alternatives forproducts like cream eye shadow, liquid founda-tion, and mascara has proved challenging foreven the most devoted of eco-beauty companies,says Jody Villecco, Quality Standards Coordina-tor for Whole Foods Market’s Whole Body de-partment. “It’s taking longer to find cleanalternatives that really work because so many ofthe necessary components contain somethingquestionable.”

The State of Green ChemistryOf course, a cleaner cosmetic that doesn’t workdoesn’t do you any good. “I have to competewith more traditional brands, which means myproducts have to be just as effective,” notes Ali-son Raffaele, founder of Alison Raffaele Cosmet-ics, the first makeup artist-owned brand to gogreen. “Clean makeup still has to have enoughslip to blend well and not be chalky, and thereare certain bright, vivid shades that can onlycome from synthetics.” Waiting for green chem-istry to catch up with conventional cosmetic for-

mulations means it’s taking longer for Raffaeleand other eco-minded brands to offer com-

pletely green products. But she’s con-vinced that slow and steady will winthe race in the end: “If we’re going toaffect wide-scale change within thebeauty industry, we have to be able to

offer green cosmetics at the mainstreamlevel,” she explains. “As long as natural formu-

lations fail to perform to the standards set by thelarge cosmetic companies, natural cosmeticbrands will remain on the fringe.”

Another issue is allergies: “One myth I hear alot is you should only use organic cosmetics ifyou have sensitive skin,” says Lauren Sternberg,MD, a dermatologist in Yardley, Pennsylvania. “I

The FDA doesn’t require cosmetics companiesto do any premarket testing to prove the safety and efficacy of their products before they hit stores.


see plenty of allergic reactions to both organicand conventional products in my patients. I al-ways remind them, poison ivy is organic too!”

The bottom line: You won’t find many cos-metics out there made with 100 percent organicingredients, and while we wait for green chem-istry to catch up, you shouldbe a little wary of anythingthat promises to be completelypure. Though there are cer-tainly exceptions, chances are,the product may not work aswell as you’d like, or there’ssomething they aren’t tellingyou. “In some ways, ‘organic’isn’t the goal yet for cosmet-ics,” notes Jeremiah McElwee,the Senior Global Whole BodyCoordinator at Whole Foods Market. “Makeup isfollowing the same trajectory we’ve seen withfood and other kinds of products; first manufac-turers start removing suspect ingredients andlooking for more natural alternatives. Figuringout how to then make those alternatives organicas well will be the next hurdle.”

But while that gold standard is still a ways off,it is getting easier to find makeup that’s free ofingredients that aren’t healthy to absorb or in-hale (and packaged in environmentally-friendlyjars and boxes!) and that’s a good thing.

Whether you’re a purist who eschews every-thing but 100 percent organic plant-based prod-ucts, or you’re a beauty junkie just hoping toclean up your act, the growing eco-friendlymakeup market should mean more toxin-freechoices for everyone. (Check out our story onpage 24 for some good choices.) But there areplenty of less-than-great options on the markettoo, so it still pays to be savvy about what you’rebuying. “Clearly anything that is carcinogenic,mutagenic, toxic to reproduction, a sensitizer, ora potential endocrine disruptor has no place incosmetics,” says Tickner. “What consumers reallyneed to focus on is a product’s ingredient list. Atruly healthy, ‘green’ beauty product should be

organic tipTo open upthe eyes, dab a lighteyeshadowunder thearch of thebrows.

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using the safest available chemistry and offer fulldisclosure about its ingredient list.” Here’s yourguide to what to look for, and what to avoid.

Is There Lead in Your Lipstick? A 2007 study by the Campaign for Safe Cosmet-ics made headlines nationwide when lab testsfound that over half of 33 lipsticks from majordepartment store and drug store brands con-tained detectable levels of lead, with one-third ofthe samples exceeding the FDA’s safety limit forlead in candy. Even scarier: The lead was a con-taminant, not a deliberatelyadded ingredient, so you won’tknow if a product is lead-freejust by checking the label. “Con-sumers should be concerned—lead is a toxic heavymetal that causes injuryto the brain, reduces fer-tility, and increases yourrisk of hypertension and heart disease,” saysPhilip J. Landrigan, MD, director of the Chil-dren’s Environmental Health Center and chair ofthe Department of Community & PreventiveMedicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine inNew York City. His findings are what promptedthe government to ban lead from gasoline and

paint over 30 years ago. But the FDA has not seta ban on the use of lead in cosmetics, and evenapproved a version of the metal called lead ac-etate for use in all cosmetics except those usedaround the eyes. “The FDA’s weak stance on leadin lipstick is part of a broad pattern of failure,”Dr. Landrigan explains. “The FDA needs to begiven back the power, personnel, and fundingthat have been systematically stripped awayfrom it in recent years, so it can do more totightly regulate cosmetics.”

Of course the amount of lead you could ingestthrough normal use of your lipstick is tiny.But Dr. Landrigan notes that it comes ontop of other sources of lead exposure inour environment (such as drinking water)that are harder to control. “And the health

impacts of lead can be detected evenat quite low levels of exposure,” he

explains. “So there is no threshold

level of exposure below which lead is safe.” Youcan learn more about potential lead exposures inyour home at www.epa.gov/lead.

Is Mercury in Your Mascara? Like lead, mercury can damage brain functioneven at low levels. It can also cause activation ofprotein enzymes, which triggers a process leadingto plaque buildup in blood vessel walls that maylead to cardiovascular disease, according to a Na-tional Institutes of Health-sponsored study fromthe Ohio State University Medical Center, pub-lished in the January/February 2007 issue of theInternational Journal of Toxicology. While mostof the media hype has focused on mercury levelsin fish, a handful of cosmetics companies still usethimerosal, the preservative form of this heavymetal, to keep mascaras (and eye drops) freshand bacteria-free. But you’ll find plenty ofthimerosal-free options on the market. “A lot ofpeople are allergic to thimerosal, so it’s still one ofthe first allergens we test for because it used to beso commonplace in eye products,” notes Dr.Sternberg. “But the good news is that the cos-metics industry has been listening to consumerson this one and getting it out.” So don’t stress—but do quickly eyeball the ingredient label when-ever you buy new eye makeup, just to be sure.

What’s with Mineral Makeup? Mineral makeup products and their newest incar-nation, cream mineral formulas, are hot, hot, hot.“Since these minerals are inert, you don’t need toadd harsh preservatives to make the product last,”explains Kristin Adams, the founder of AfterglowCosmetics, which uses only natural or certified or-ganic ingredients. They also provide some degreeof natural sun protection and may be less likely tocause allergies than many other kinds of cosmet-ics, says Adams.

71Organic Beauty

It’s a good idea to avoid loose powder formulations containing talc, because youcan easily inhale particles as you swooshthem around with your big, fluffy brush.

Tricks of the Trade

To keep lipstickfrom bleeding orsmudging, outlinethe lips with a lippencil in a neutralshade. To makeyour lipstick lastlonger, color in thelips. Or, apply a bitof powder aroundyour lips. To makeyour lips lookpoutier dab lipbalm in the centerof your lips.


72 Organic Beauty

BUT SINCE there’s no official definitionof the term “mineral makeup,” thereare many brands that cut corners byusing just a little bit of the real miner-als (which are quite costly even in their

raw states), and then filling up the rest of theirproducts with cheap, potentially toxic ingredi-ents. Topping the list of concerns is talc, a min-eral that’s great at absorbing moisture, but canbe harmful to our respiratory systems. “Most talccontains asbestos-like fibers and must be re-garded as a human carcinogen,” says Dr. Landri-gan. “The principal route of exposure is viainhalation.”

It’s a good idea to avoid loose powder formu-lations containing talc, because you can easilyinhale particles as you swoosh them around withyour big, fluffy brush. But talc is not as easily ab-sorbed through the skin, notes Tickner, so youcan minimize your risk by choosing pressedpowders and cream-based formulas for your eyeshadows, blushes, and other powder products.

Another chemical generating buzz is bismuthoxychloride, a heavy metal added to many min-eral makeup lines to give products their pearles-cent finish. On the scale of chemicals you need toworry about, “this isn’t the worst,” says Adams.“Some women do just fine with it on their skin.But we don’t use it because we’ve found thatsome women do find it causes irritation.” Ifyou’re not sure how you’ll react, do a patch testwith a product before using it regularly.

What Are Nanoparticles?Perhaps the biggest news in mineral makeup isalso the smallest: nanoparticles. About $50 bil-lion worth of consumer goods (from cosmeticsto car wax) used nanotechnology in 2006, ac-cording to a Consumer Reports study, and by2014, the market is expected to grow to $2.6trillion. Cosmetic manufacturers are toutingthese new nanomaterials, where chemicals arereduced to sizes about 100,000 times smallerthan the width of a human hair, as the greatestthing since sliced bread, and adding them to a P

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wide range of eye shadows, nail polishes, facepowders, lipstick, foundation, and blush. Buttheir risks are mostly unknown. When materialsare this small their properties change, so carbonatoms become 100 times stronger than steel—and previously benign ingredients may becometoxic, while toxic ingredients can become moreconcentrated, says Caroline Baier-Anderson,Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiologyand preventive medicine at the University ofMaryland, Baltimore, and a health scientist withthe Environmental Defense Fund. “Some of theways that a substance’s properties change at thissize may be beneficial, but some could be of con-cern, for instance, if they allow a substance topenetrate the skin, circulate in our blood, andreach our internal organs. Right now we don’tknow enough to judge which nanomaterials aresafe and which might not be.”

Pigments and Preservatives:What’s Safe? Artificial colors and preservatives get a bad rapwhether you’re talking about cosmetics or junkfood. First up to avoid where you can: coal tarcolors. This range of chemicals, derived fromcoal byproducts created when they carbonized orgasified, is used to color cosmetics as well as tosoften hard, scaly skin, and color hair. Theyoften show up on product labels as “FD&C” or“D&C” colors. The Environmental ProtectionAgency lists coal tar as a known human respira-tory toxin. According to the InternationalAgency for Research on Cancer, FD&C Blue 1and FD&C Green 3 may be carcinogenic, while

animal studies have shown that D&C Red 33,FD&C Yellow 5, and FD&C Yellow 6 can causecell mutations. The FDA issued a warning toconsumers in 1993 about coal tar being a possi-ble cancer risk, though they’ve failed to ban it inthe years since. But it is banned for use in cos-metics by both the European Union andCanada. You’ll find these colors added to hairdyes, mascaras, and other color cosmetics. You’llprobably be stuck with them if you’re shoppingfor particularly vivid shades, but for most colors(and especially neutrals) you can find great alter-natives made from mineral oxides and othermineral-based colors.

Next is a class of ingredients known as“formaldehyde-donor preservatives.” Get readyfor a list of big words: Diazolidinyl Urea, DmdmHydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea, and SodiumHydroxymethylglycinate. All of these are preser-vative chemicals designed to keep your cosmeticsfresh and bacteria-free, but under certain cir-cumstances they can release small doses offormaldehyde, says Whole Foods’ Villecco.“These preservatives are banned or highly re-stricted in other countries, but still legal to use inthe U.S. We don’t allow them in Whole Bodyproducts that meet the criteria for our PremiumBody Care label, however, because there arehigher quality preservatives available, like sodiumbenzoate, ethylhexylglycerin, and alcohol.”

Is My Makeup Bag Too Dependent on Foreign Oil? Petrochemicals (such as mineral oil, paraffin,and petrolatum) are an inexpensive way to

soften and protect skin, make foundations andcreams smoother, and give lipsticks their shine.Unfortunately, ingredients derived from petro-leum carry a hefty carbon footprint. And theycan also cause allergic reactions and contain im-purities that may cause cancer and liver toxicity.As a result they’ve been banned for use in cos-metics by the European Union. But here in theUSA, you’ll find them added to a huge numberof concealers, mascaras, eyebrow pencils, eyeshadows, liquid powders, and lip products, aswell as creams, lotions, styling gels, wax depila-tories, and hair relaxers. Look for products madewith plant-based oils, emollients and waxes,such as jojoba oil, apricot kernel oil, and car-nauba wax, instead.

No matter what the headlines say, keep inmind that one bad eye shadow isn’t going totake years off your life. All of these ingredientsrely on regular, cumulative exposures over thecourse of years, and the dose of carcinogensyou’ll get from your concealer is tiny comparedto the pollution we breathe in every day. Butyour makeup bag is one place you can exertsome control and cut a few unnecessary toxinsout of your life, whether that means replacingyour current cosmetics with greener alternativeswhenever you run out of something, or even ex-perimenting with new brands you’re not as fa-miliar with every so often, to see how that greenchemistry is coming along. Choose your owncosmetic comfort zone—and remember yourpower as a consumer.Every purchasecounts.

“Makeup is following the same trajectory we’ve seenwith food and other products; first, manufacturersstart removing suspect ingredients and looking formore natural alternatives. Figuring out how to makethose alternatives organic will be the next hurdle.”

Organic Beauty 73

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