So, for all of you at home biting your nails (bad girls!) about lead and lipstick, you are cordially invited to read Paula Begoun's take on the matter.
In brief: Paula says it's fear-mongering and we should double our efforts to get the lead out of other, higher-impact environmental sources like food and water. Paint your faces, harlots!
Now, I really like Paula Begoun and her handy product reviews...but the woman calls herself the Cosmetic Cop. Yikes. Overstatement of authority much? She knows a lot about which cosmetics make you look pretty but maybe less about whether a pregnant woman is putting herself at risk by wearing Cover Girl. As for the FDA, I trust it them as much as I do our other glorious government agencies like FEMA, the DoD, Homeland Security and the DEA: as far as I can throw them.
I'd recommend anyone curious to check out the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Then you can make up your own mind on the matter. Since I'm not in a high risk group for lead, I'll keep using conventional lipstick. I like to live on the edge, you know?
I'm happy for the heightened awareness of questionable makeup ingredients. I will definitely look into the companies that the CfSC lists as having pledged to keep carcinogens and other hazardous materials out of their products. "Good-for-the-earth" and "good-for-my-health" make me nearly as happy as "beautiful bottle" or "heavenly scent." (Of course, it's only fair of me to point out that the corporations listed by this non-profit website are completely for-profit and interested in catering to a niche market.)
Is it hard to get a nice, shiny red without lead, I wonder? I'm quite in favor of asking L'Oreal to make products with no tracable lead levels. I'm also going to write a quick email to Nars, my favorite lipstick maker, and ask them where they stand on the issue.
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