Popular Lipstick Brands Have Been Found to Contain Lead
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island 
on 10.12.07
Photo credit: Blingdom of God
Here’s yet another reason to look for organic and all natural beauty products, particularly when applying them to our smackers. A test by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found that 61% of the 33 lipsticks that they tested contained lead.
Additionally, one third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s standard establishment. Of the brands that were tested, the more popular ones that contained lead included Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior.
Although Fox News suggests that this isn’t enough to throw your lipsticks away, the report states that pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable. Proctor & Gamble, who makes Cover Girl and L’Oreal, stated that the quantity of lead a consumer might be exposed to from its lip product "is hundreds of times less than the amount that she would get from eating, breathing and drinking water."
Our take on it? Why even take the risk. Via ::Yahoo! News ::Fox News (video)
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Let's see, I can have lipstick without lead, or lipstick with just a tiny bit of lead.
The fact that lead is in other products, including the air and water downwind/stream of the lipstick factory, isn't a very good arguement that a little more lead is ok.
Take the lead out of the product, and you also take it out of the production chain. It's a two-fer.
The difference with eating drinking and breathing is that you have to do it, while we do not have to use lipstick to survive, and if we insist I am sure there are much better varieties out there then the conventional brands.
Does anyone know where to find the comprehensive list of lipsticks tested? and which ones tested positive?
http://www.safecosmetics.org/your_health/poisonkiss.cfm
has a report you can download that has the individual info it looks like.
I am disappointed to see TreeHugger encouraging the spread of misinformation. When I first heard this very alarming rumor back in 2004, I did my homework. You should too:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_lead_in_lipstick.htm
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/lipstick.asp
Any scientist will tell you that lead is a naturally occuring element in water and soil, both of which can result in trace amounts being found in cosmetic formulations - or broccoli picked from your garden for that matter!
This is horrible. The "study" refered to is neither scientific, nor objective.
This is an Urban Myth exploited by a SIG with ulterior motives. (assuming they are intelligent participants and not just activist idiots fallen victim to the original Myth)
The worst part is that since my freinds see me as a "Green activist" they will lump me in with the people who fell for this and think the less of me for it.
Procter and Gamble does not make L'oreal cosmetics. When there are mistakes like this in an article how do you believe that any of the rest of it is true?
and take a look at that snopes article...this lead in lipstick thing has been floating around the net for a long time!
I'm very upset by this information and plan to make a trip to Sephora to see what lipsticks I can find that don't contain lead. As it is currently, the only brand I'm using is Revlon since it seems to be ok -- my Cover Girl and L'Oreal lipsticks, however, have gone into the trash.
In general.... We need to help cultivate a world that is based on conscious living, and creating products and services that are derived from appreciating and sustaining the existence of humanity.
We need to build businesses and grow them out of love and generosity. Out of fullfilling a need - in a way that is kind to each other.
We need to stop trying to be surgeons and cutting out the cancers of our society - AND get to the root -pluck IT out- and rebuild.
Making money has been at the forefront of most business' and it has been at any cost. We can create prosperity and beauty and fashion in ways that are caring. We can do anything!
And even if you read this and wonder - hey - what can I really do? Ask yourself the question from a place of power- and contemplate what you really can do!
I am sitting back and laughing at the hypocrisy in this forum...if you read the unscientific study (if you could even call it that) Burt's Bees was also on that list, and they only use "natural iron oxides" the same iron oxides used by all cosmetics companies and even in food. These are the same colors found in revlon, maybelline, etc....how come Burt's excused from this article? And fyi....many if not the majority of natural color cosmetics are terrible...it's like these companies are slapping some natural ingredients and then have the audacity to charge ridiculous prices just because the label says natural! Do they not test them before putting it on the market?? Do they notice that they don't perform?? Hmmm...I wonder if that is why Burt's discontinued their color cosmetics line?
Open your eyes people, and educate yourselves!
Terri Gross interviewed Mark Schapiro on "Fresh Air" on National Public Radio. It fully and directly addresses this issue. Listen and formulate and informed opinion. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16616951
Here are his credentials:
Schapiro, editorial director of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, has written for Harper's, The Nation, Mother Jones and The Atlantic Monthly. His book is called Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, and What's at Stake for American Power.