Lipstick - The Obssesion of Toxic Beauty

If I had to recall one miserable memory from my childhood, it would be the shopping experience with my mum —specifically, helping her with the “right” lipstick color. It was unforgettable indeed, as she would keep asking questions like “Does this color look good?” “How about this one, is it better?” non-stop for hours until she eventually felt satisfied.

Back then I thought beauty companies were “foolish,” as I struggled to understand the logic behind making so many products with colors that looked almost identical, at least from a kid’s point of view.

I had yet to unfold the whole story behind lipsticks. One day I eventually managed to secretly “try” one of my mum's; I couldn’t say it was a pleasant experience. It smelled awful, tasted bitter, and most importantly, as I looked at myself in the mirror, it made my face look stupidly “funny.”

Perhaps it’s fair to say I was a bit naive back then, as I kept wondering why would someone buy such a thing in the first place, let alone, put it on their face.

A short history of lipstick

The idea of coloring one’s lips to appear more attractive dates back to before Cleopatra's time (70–30BC), when lipsticks were considered one of the essential cosmetics for a woman’s sex appeal.

“A woman without paint is like food without salt.” — Plautus (254–184 B.C.)

Back in 500 B.C., crushed mulberries were used as rouge in Greece, while Roman women made lipsticks from ochre clays. People simply couldn’t resist these colors as they believed they made them look younger and healthier.

The poison kiss

During the 18th century in Italy, lipsticks were often accompanied with facial powder, working with each other to make a look “complete.”

“This coated face which is covered with so many drugs and where unfortunate husbands press their lips, is it a face or a sore?” — Juvenal (55–140 A.D.)

However, some of these cosmetics were suspicious and considered poisonous, as around 600 husbands died from either kissing their wives’ lips or cheeks.

A brief reprieve from cosmetics

During the reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria in the 19th century, cosmetics like lipstick fell into disfavor as the queen considered it to be vulgar for ladies. Only people with special jobs or specific needs were allowed to wear makeup, such as actors and prostitutes.

Current day

Fast forward to the 21st century, and beauty products are ubiquitous. People often praise the freedom they have to wear what they like, as we all are fulfilled by revealing the beauty within ourselves.

The metal hazard

Human beings need many different types of metals as nutrients to maintain our body’s functionality, but heavy metals are certainly not one of them.

Back in 2007, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics published a study that covered lipsticks from 33 brands. More than 60% of the tested products contained an amount of lead about 3–4 times higher than the allowed standard set for candy.

Lead can be very sneaky, as it causes serious issues within our body by mimicking other vital metals in our body like calcium and iron. It can take the place of certain proteins, affecting our biological processes. This could affect our learning ability over time by disrupting certain neurotransmitters in our brains.

The regulation flaw

To make matters worse, heavy metals in lipsticks are not even regulated! There’s no limitation for how much heavy metals can be included in a single lipstick, simply because heavy metals are considered to be contaminants, not ingredients, so they are not subject to regulation.

Therefore industries could be making lipsticks that are highly contaminated by heavy metals without being punished or restrained by regulation, as they are not violating the “rules.”

The treachery of dyes

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” — Claude Monet (1840–1926)

Perhaps I’m not the only one, but it always gives me a headache whenever I see a beauty company get really “creative” with their product ingredient list. To be honest, even for someone already familiar with the industry for years, I still struggle to recognize a lot of the ingredients.

The numbers get overlooked

Have you ever seen a list of numbers that looks like this? Many of us would never pay attention to a list like this, and the company that made the list doesn’t want you to notice it, either.

[+/- Mica, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491), Iron Oxides (Ci 77492), Iron Oxides (Ci 77499), Red 6 (Ci 15850), Red 28 (Ci 45410), Red 33 (Ci 17200), Yellow 5 (Ci 19140), Blue 1 Lake (Ci 42090), Red 7 Lake (Ci 15850), Red 28 Lake (Ci 45410).

However, if you did, then congrats! You might just find the secret codes for some eye-catching colors…

Well, not really. This is the series of numbers people will likely see from some colored beauty products, usually at the end of its ingredient list. It’s called the Color Index Number.

Vivid colors from the blackening coal

People usually see three types of dyes, natural (organic), inorganic, and synthetic. Colorants with numbers in the 75000 and 77000 series are either natural or inorganic pigments, whereas the majority that are used within the beauty industry are synthetic pigments made from coal tar.

Coal tar is a known carcinogen: a mixture of chemical by-products derived from coal burning. It consists of a toxin called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which cause DNA damage and lung tumors.

Our defective regulatory system has done something “phenomenal” when colorants made from coal tar are not even approved as food additives, yet are allowed to be used in lipsticks.

Everything must be capitalized

Back in the early 20th century, despite already being one of the most profitable fossil fuel industries, coal farming still had a “final” issue to overcome. To maximize their profit, they need to make the most of the “wasted” by-products from coal farming called coal tar.

Most of us certainly would never think about relating coal farming to beauty products. However, one day some “genius” scientists within the industry came up with a “brilliant” idea and said, “Why not make these coal tars into some synthetic dyes, perhaps that could be used in cosmetics?”

Well, that sounds interesting! The entire industry adored this idea, as it seemed familiar, and felt like the “same” as another issue they had solved years ago: the case of aluminum manufacturing companies struggling to deal with the toxic waste by-product sodium fluoride.

One thing the industries agreed on was they wanted their issue sorted without costing too much money; they surely have achieved that by eradicating traditional public health standards. As a result, our drinking water and toothpaste are now fluoridated, which later became part of the infamous “healthy” fluoride propaganda, a history we all have witnessed.

Less is more

My years of beauty experiences have told me that more ingredients are not equal to better formulation; it is often the entire opposite. Products that perform the best are usually those with a minimum amount of ingredients.

So why do the companies in the beauty industry still make their formulation so complex? I assume it always comes down to 2 things:

• It could be the company is trying to “hide” something, such as an ingredient that is either potentially toxic or extremely controversial
• Sometimes the formulation is purposely made to look complicated to sustain the company's monopoly, ripping off its competitors

Either way, it makes it hard for the people who look at the list to figure out what each ingredient is and at what proportion it is used.

Distorted beauty standards

My takeaway is that it would be wise for all of us to avoid using colored beauty products as much as possible. Britain’s Queen from the 19th century had the brilliant idea of restricting makeup like lipsticks for special occasions only, as they were not something that ought to be used on a daily basis.

Sadly, we all knew this was not going to end well. Many people nowadays have accepted the motto “beauty comes at a cost,” just look at how drastically plastic surgery has evolved.

The beauty industry is constantly stretching people’s boundaries, which leads to more people making sacrifices to “restore” their natural beauty. Lipsticks may seem like handy options, with little sacrifice of health. But they are not.

Originally published in Ecorational, check out the full article with more in-depth research details.