Fantasia Salon / Spa and Wig Specialists

Did you know that women can eat up to several pounds of lipstick during their lifetime? I know what you are thinking, why would anyone be eating lipstick? I thought only little kids ate lipstick? Well, we are all eating it. We apply it, then we eat and it’s gone. Where did it go? I rest my case! I’m fairly certain that if you knew on the front end that there was lead in the lipstick, you may not even want to wear it.
Are you aware that 60 per cent of what you put on your skin is absorbed into your body? Looking good on the outside can sometimes be hazardous to our health and well being! If you cannot pronounce the ingredients on the label - it’s probably not something you should be putting on your skin.

That is why it’s important that you become a label reader; and not just at the grocery store. It’s really important that you know what you are putting on your skin and wearing on your face.

Look to see if there is alcohol or formaldehyde in products, they can be very drying and damaging to your skin and hair. And yes, they really do put formaldehyde in some of our personal care products! It’s not just used for embalming purposes, unfortunately!

Look for ingredients that are botanical and pure, that don’t undergo chemical processing during production. If this seems like a daunting task, it is very easy today with the Internet. All you have to do typically, is go to the company website and read. If you don’t see what you are looking for, call them or send them an email. A lot of skincare and makeup companies today are very proud of their ingredients and thrilled to let you know what is in their products.

I think the days of being able to unload “anything” on a consumer are gone. Today buyers are more informed and concerned about their health and well being. Perhaps there was a time when we assumed the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) was always on the lookout for our best interest. Well, we now know differently, particularly where personal care products have been concerned. I’m sure the FDA does some good things, I mean they recently pulled all of the tomatoes off grocery store shelves so we wouldn’t all end up with e-coli, so we probably need them for some things.

But, with the tools we have today at our disposal, there really is no reason not to be an informed consumer!

By now, everyone’s heard about the dangerous levels of lead found in children’s toys manufactured in China. However, what received less media coverage and was equally disturbing, was a study released by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics which found there is six times as much lead in lipsticks as the maximum amount permitted in toys.

Lead is a potent neurotoxin and is linked to numerous other health and reproductive problems. The cosmetic industry maintains that its inclusion of lead in lipstick is not a problem, because lipstick is not ingested. Well, I don’t know about you, but if I have lipstick on and eat something, the lipstick is gone and I’m pretty sure I know where it went! I believe anything you put on your lips is going to find it’s way into your system! Let’s face it, we all know there is no safe level of lead ingestion. But, many women are not aware that lead is often an ingredient in their lipstick.

It’s time we become aware of what we are putting on our face and lips. Have you ever thought that you could be doing long-term damage to your health with your normal morning and evening routines? Most of us are applying lip stick more than just once or twice per day! I would think that after years of this, we have ingested a significant amount of lead.

You probably know a lot about what’s in your food but perhaps not so much about the things you are putting on your face and lips. Why is that? Food and food ingredients are regulated and safety tested before they are sold. Guess what? Cosmetic ingredients are not regulated or safety tested.

Cosmetic manufacturers are allowed to mix toxic chemicals, poisons and known carcinogens in the products we use. And, some of us are using these products quite liberally, on a daily basis. Federal law allows the cosmetics industry to put a bunch of chemicals into personal care products and makeup with no required safety testing. They are not required to monitor the health effects of their products and their labels have limited requirements.

Cosmetics are not reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before being sold to the public. The FDA doesn not require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before marketing.

Of course the cosmetic manufacturers using these toxic ingredients maintain that they are using amounts far to small to harm consumers. The US customers have faith in their manufacturers, other countries do not. European countries have much more stringent and protective laws for cosmetics than we do in the United States. That means that many of our products, made in the USA, which are deemed safe for us, are not allowed to be sold in other countries!

The good news is that many cosmetic companies today are on board with consumers and are taking steps to make their cosmetics safe. But it took outcries from concerned consumers to get them to take action!

Fantasia carries Lindi Skin, SkinCeuticals and Jane Iredale Mineral Makeup. Each of these companies manufacture pure products with out harmful ingredients so you can have confidence that you are preserving your health when you use them.