Organic MakeupWith organic makeup, consumers get to choose both flawless beauty and radiant health at the same time! Like organic body care products—eco-friendly for both your body and the earth—top quality organic makeup provides nourishment for the skin without the toxins found in most cosmetics. That means a win/win for both you and the environment. Why the Excitement Over Organic Makeup? As our largest organ, skin plays a number of very important roles in personal health including protection, elimination and simply keeping all our body parts in one place! Ensuring skin stays in top shape requires an intake of the essential nutrients—vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fatty acids and proteins—found in healthy foods and supplements. But it also requires avoiding the synthetic chemicals and toxins found in most personal care products today. Staying away from questionable ingredients in cosmetics and other beauty products may seem a little like overkill, but in fact, it is extremely important. 
Because many synthetic chemicals have been found to contribute to problems such as hormonal imbalances, birth defects and cancer, the lack of testing, insufficient long term testing or lack of testing on the synergistic impact of compounds found on a makeup product's ingredient list is of great concern. As well, many ingredients in skin care products can actually contribute to skin problems such as acne, eczema, rosacea and diaper rash, can dull skin's appearance, and can contribute to wrinkles and premature aging. The excitement over organic makeup is happening and is warranted because finally, enhancing beautiful skin with a light cosmetic touch and keeping skin at it healthiest can go hand in hand.Best Organic Makeup? Do Your Homework As with skin care products in general, makeup sales are on the rise and are a market that, for the most part, stays fairly recession-proof. From the beginning of time, women and men have liked to look good and nothing has changed! Among the many tens of thousands of products then, how do you choose the best natural and organic makeup for your unique situation? First become aware of the ingredients you definitely want to avoid. If a mascara or foundation or lip gloss you are looking to purchase contains any of the top ingredients to stay away from, put it back on the shelf. Next familiarize yourself with some of the best personal care ingredients that are most skin friendly and look for products that contain those. In fact, just as you would with a moisturizer or cleanser, go through all the steps on a DIY Product Review. Watch for greenwashing, companies' attempts to make their products look more natural than they are, and don't be misled by products without full ingredient disclosure or those who don't yet list their ingredients in an understandable, consistent, INCI-compliant manner. Be wise, be discerning and be choosy. It is, after all, your skin and your body and the earth you are impacting. Take Your Lipstick for Example If you need a little more encouragement to make the move from conventional cosmetics to organic makeup, take a close look at a conventional lipstick list of ingredients and its many known harmful ingredients: RICINUS COMMUNIS (CASTOR) SEED OIL; POLYGLYCERYL-2 DIISOSTEARATE; SQUALANE; GLYCERYL TRIACETYL HYDROXYSTEARATE; MYRISTYL LACTATE; OZOKERITE; MICROCRYSTALLINE WAX; BARIUM SULFATE; C10-30 CHOLESTEROL/LANOSTEROL ESTERS; POLYBUTENE; POLYETHYLENE; POLYGLYCERYL-3 DIISOSTEARATE; PPG-51/SMDI COPOLYMER; STEARYL DIMETHICONE; NYLON-12; ETHYLHEXYL METHOXYCINNAMATE; SILICA; POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE; ACRYLATES COPOLYMER; PROPYLPARABEN; C12-15 ALKYL BENZOATE; FRAGRANCE; SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS (JOJOBA) SEED OIL; NEOPENTYL GLYCOL DICAPRYLATE/DICAPRATE; LITHIUM MAGNESIUM SILICATE; BHT; TOCOPHERYL ACETATE; QUATERNIUM-18; ALLYL METHACRYLATES CROSSPOLYMER; TOCOPHEROL; MAY CONTAIN : RED 7 LAKE; IRON OXIDES; MICA; TITANIUM DIOXIDE; RED 27 LAKE; RED 6 LAKE; YELLOW 5 LAKE; MANGANESE VIOLET; RED 21 LAKE; BLUE 1 LAKE; YELLOW 6 LAKE; ORANGE 5; BISMUTH OXYCHLORIDE; RED 33 LAKE; YELLOW 10 LAKE; CARMINE; RED 21. Skin Deep, the Environment Working Group's well-respected cosmetic data base, rates this product as an 8 out of 10—10 being the worst—with ingredients in the product linked to cancer, developmental and/or reproductive toxicity, allergies and/or immunotoxicity as well as possible concerns with neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, persistence and bioaccumulation, organ system toxicity and miscellaneous other problems such as skin, eyes and lung irritation. Finally, there is concern that certain ingredients in this product can lead to enhanced skin absorption—absorption of the very ingredients that are of health concern. 
An organic lip cream ingredient list looks more like this: +/- iron oxides (degree of iron oxides used dependent upon depth of color), certified organic vanilla planifolia CO2 extract, certified organic simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, certified organic rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, certified organic unrefined cera alba (beeswax). Skin Deep rates this lip cream as a 0 and the manufacturer states there are no health concerns if the product is used as intended (i.e. the minerals used to give color are not intended to be ingested, just as other types of rock particles should not be breathed in or eaten in significant amounts). If your are currently using lip color with an ingredient list similar to the first example, I suggest you "take your lipstick" and place it in the trash. Look for a better source, more along the lines of example number two, a product produced by my favorite organic makeup and certified organic skin care company, ONEgroup/Miessence (even better, start by trying my favorite color—berry!). If you haven't already, be sure to check out Begin Within Natural Skincare's other Makeup and Organic Information pages: Start with Certified Organic Cosmetics then Organic Body Care Soon there will be additional cosmetic and organic information. Interested? Sign up for the RSS feed and be notified when new website content is posted. Return from Organic Makeup to Homepage
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