Safer Kisses

Lately my six year old daughter has become obsessed with lip gloss for “special occasions”. Totally normal and fun and I love seeing how excited she gets, but my mama bear instinct kicks in knowing what many of us may not realize – sadly, the beauty industry is virtually unregulated.

Did you know that “U.S. law does not require cosmetic products and ingredients, other than color additives, to have FDA approval before they go on the market? The law also does not require cosmetic companies to share their safety information with FDA.” (Source FDA.gov)

Cue one big collective, are you freaking kidding me?!

It’s shocking, but even scarier knowing that the U.S. has not passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of ingredients used in personal care products since 1938. While we wait for the Personal Care Products Safety Act, a bipartisan bill that was introduced back in 2017, to move along in Congress and hopefully become law soon, we need to focus on being the most educated consumers we can be. Many products, particularly those marketed towards children, may contain harmful ingredients, which could contain hidden heavy metals, like lead or asbestos, or cause cancer or developmental problems.

So, what can we do?

• Educate Yourself – Read the labels of any personal care products before buying and if you can’t pronounce any ingredient, look it up to see if it may be harmful
• Make EWG Your New BFF – If you haven’t already, download the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep app (or check out their site), so you can easily see what score your product has received in terms of ingredient hazard and understand its safety
• Vote With Your Dollar – Seek out companies that put your safety first by providing product transparency, ingredient screening and ban harmful or questionable chemicals

Knowing what I know today, I had no qualms about giving my daughter my Beautycounter lip gloss (and eyeshadow too), thanks to the stringent scrutiny that goes into making our products. Grateful for one less thing to worry about (because we all know we have enough of those) and cleaner cosmetics that keep her safer. After all, the health and safety of my family is my number one motivator and I know many of us can agree on that.

So, let’s work together and push ourselves to demand more, because we all deserve better.