Common misconceptions about lead in lipstick

Some lipstick colors contain more lead than others. Pink contains the highest amount of lead, followed by purple and then red.

Misconceptions about lead in lipstick

Scientists believe that many minerals used to lighten red to pink and purple may have contributed to increasing the amount of lead in cosmetics.

But, is this lead enough to harm you?

Fact: Lead is not only in cosmetics

John Bailey - Vice President of Global Science of Cosmetics Association, Personal Hygiene and Perfume (Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association) affirms that the average amount of lead a woman is exposed through use Cosmetic use is only 1/1000 of the amount of lead that the person contacts through eating, drinking and breathing daily.

Indeed, lead is a substance present everywhere around you including dirt, soil, water, food .

The presence of lead in lipstick is also unavoidable because the red and pink colors used in cosmetics and even in nature are inherently contained in lead.

If you are a scientist with specialized tools, you can find lead even in the sweet red carrots you are eating.

The amount of lead in lipstick is not worth worrying about

However, lead in cosmetics in general and lipstick in particular is not usually listed by the manufacturers in the ingredient table.

They did not escape. The reason is simply that no cosmetic company directly dumps lead into their products.

By all means, using lead does not bring any benefits to both manufacturers and consumers.

The 'lead in cosmetics' that we often refer to should be understood as lead in coloring products used to make cosmetics.

And as said, most of the pink and red things in color or in nature already contain lead.

Lead in lipstick, not worth worrying about

The American Food and Drug Association (FDA) strictly controls the amount of lead in coloring products used to prepare lipstick.

The level of color allowed for lipstick is below 20ppm (about 20 milligrams of lead per kilogram of lipstick, equivalent to 20 parts per million).

According to the FDA's 2011 announcement about the 400 types of lipids containing the highest amount of lead, the top lipstick also contained only lead content of 7.19ppm, so these 400 lipsticks are still absolutely in safe zone.

On average, every kilogram of lipstick produced on the market only contains about 1 milligram of lead.

This means that we have to 'eat' thousands of new lipsticks to accumulate some of the lead that is likely to cause its health effects.

So you can believe in this final conclusion of FDA: the amount of lead in lipstick is not considered a health concern and no health cases have been affected by the use of lipstick in particular. or cosmetics in general.

Please rest assured to be beautiful.