You’ll pry my red lipstick "from my cold dead hands"!

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I’ve been wearing red lipstick since I was in my teens and red lipstick was not in fashion.

The reason for this was that my favorite aunt always wore red lipstick and matching red nail polish all her life and sh looked sensational. The first lipstick I ever wore was hers (I must have been two years old or so. She went out and bought me my own little-kid brand).

Well, today I get up, open my email and find this, via Agent Bedhead:

NEW PRODUCT TESTS FIND LEAD IN LIPSTICK

Toys made in China aren’t the only products laced with dangerous heavy metals: lipstick manufactured in the United States and used daily by millions of American women also contains surprisingly high levels of lead, according to new product tests released today by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The lead tests were conducted by an independent laboratory over the month of September on red lipsticks bought in Boston, Hartford, Conn., San Francisco and Minneapolis. Top findings include:

More than half of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested (61 percent) contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm). None of these lipsticks listed lead as an ingredient.

One-third of the tested lipsticks exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy – a standard established to protect children from directly ingesting lead. Lipstick products, like candy, are directly ingested into the body. Nevertheless, the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick, which fits with the disturbing absence of FDA regulatory oversight and enforcement capacity for the $50 billion personal care products industry.

If you follow their links they also have a question and answer section and a PDF copy of their report.

The report, you can see if you open the link, features a photo of a cute little girl and is titled “A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick“. Hmmm. Remember what I was saying about “for the children” arguments the other day?

The study claims that “Women inadvertently (but harmlessly) eat about 4lbs of lipstick in a lifetime.” Considering my early start, I must be working my way into my 6th lb or so. Not one of the symptoms described (learning, language and behavioral problems such as reduced school performance and increased aggression, infertility and miscarriage) have ever happened so far. However, if you try to separate me from my red lipstick it may lead to increased aggression on my part.

I read the full report and what it comes down is that it calls for yet more government intervention and regulation. Why am I not surprised?

After reading the report I’ve made an informed decision:
“I have only five words for you: From my cold, dead hands.”

Which, by the way, will be wearing OPI Big Apple Red nail polish:

(And before you ask, that is a photo of my hand, but the red lipstick gif came from here)

Do you like red lipstick, or do you hate it? Answer the survey!

Update:
Janette emails,

Here’s a link that kind of talks about what I mentioned in your comments, Fausta.
Lead in Candy Likely To Be Consumed Frequently by Small Children: Recommended Maximum Level and Enforcement Policy

The allowable lead level in candy was .5ppm until 2006 which means that all of US grew up eating a lot more lead as a tasty treat than what’s currently in our lipsticks.

And we turned out fine.

Mostly.

IMHO this is just a case of another wacky “consumer’s rights group” trying to get free publicity on the tailcoats of another hot story (lead in children’s toys).

About the “Campaign for Safe Cosmetics”

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition of women’s, public health, labor, environmental health and consumer-rights groups.

Founding groups of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics include: Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, Breast Cancer Fund, Clean Water Fund, Commonweal, Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, National Black Environmental Justice Network, National Environmental Trust, and Women’s Voices for the Earth .

And more:
Snopes had already debunked this story in 2004. But it’s never too late for Safe Cosmetics to drive its agenda, isn’t it?

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