Last week’s report from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics exposed many popular-brand red lipsticks to contain potentially hazardous amounts of trace leads, raising concern as to what other pernicious ingredients might be lurking under the beauty-product radar. Though we’ve come a long way from the centuries-old practice of tinting lips with beeswax and red-stained plants, our advancements haven’t got us that far. Lipsticks no longer contain whale blubber, but they are still full of animal fats (and in some cases, cow brains), petroleum waxes, carcinogenic coal tar dyes and other toxins. Given lipstick’s ills, is it possible to be green and still coat the kisser in red?

Globe and Mail, Heidi Sopinka
Published October 19, 2007 (more…)