Allergic to lipstick

One of the worst allergic reactions I've had (after a particularly bad firewood episode) was to a bright pick cheap lipstick that we bought to wear to the Sevens in Wellington. After wearing it for two days  my lips tripled in size and I looked like I had gone out to get extreme lip fillers. Because of the nature of the reaction I was also putting papaw cream on it so my lips were super shiny as well. Needless to say it was not only horrible but looked ridiculous as well. My workmates thought it was hilarious (you can't really call in sick for blown up lips) and it lasted for about a week.

 
Surely after that you'd think after that I'd cut my losses and ditch lipstick? Not quite. First I thought that it was just that type - it only cost NZ$10 and was very cheap brand. When that wasn't the case I've managed to keep it almost under control by applying lip balm first and then the lipstick over top. This reduces the skin exposure but means that the lipstick lasts for about 10 minutes (or slightly longer if you just sit around, don't smile, talk, eat or drink). I don't wear it often but you can't turn up at a wedding (or the races, or a dress up party) with a face full of make-up and bare lips.


Source: tumblr

  Anyway, I presumed that the reaction that I have was because there was rosin in lipstick. And, for the most part, I was right. DermNet NZ does really great fact sheets about allergies. There is a long list of irritants that are known to cause reactions in lipstick including:.

• Nickel
• Perfume and flavouring
• Emollients including this unpronounceable one: isopalmityl diglyceryl sebacate that was used as a replacement for castor oil in Japan but is now being withdrawn from lipsticks and lipgloss.
• Gloss - this is where the rosin/colophonium comes in
• Anti-irritant agent’ – bisabolol (main active ingredient in chamomile)
• Sealant – shellac
• Cushioning/texture – di-isostearyl malate (fatty ester) 

The list is pretty interesting . I like that one of the listed irritants is 'Anti-irritant agent’ – bisabolol (main active ingredient in chamomile).  
 When you read the list of the common irritants that cause allergies to lipstick, it is easy to be concerned as to why these things are in the lipstick at all. Shellac, nickel, the various chemicals, rosin, preservatives and chemical colouring. Would you eat any of that stuff on its own?? 
Even though Snopes has claimed that women do not eat a couple of kilos of lipstick in a lifetime, I'm not so sure I want to be eating any chemicalised tree sap...


Bare Minerals lipstick - great find

So, where to from here? I've found a couple of brands that appear to be mostly natural. Bare Minerals does a great natural lipstick. I've used it with no problems. Inika is an Australian brand of organic make-up that also does a great lipstick. So there are alternatives out there, it's just a matter of trying to find them! 

Sukin, organic or not?

We recently came across the Australian brand Sukin Organics, a natural skin care brand. It is not certified organic but, at first glance seems to be fairly natural.  It was on sale at the Chemist Warehouse this weekend so I bought the body wash, shampoo, conditioner, a couple of skin creams and cleanser and thought I'd give it a go.

This morning I was feeling quite virtuous - I did Pilates, watered the plants, ground my own coffee, did the washing, cleaned and then used the Sukin products.  I've seen differing reviews on the internet so decided to do my own research, is Sukin fine even though its not certified organic? Or, are we being Suk-ed in?

The chemical low-down 

Sukin isn't certified organic and there are still some chemical ingredients in their products, including (from the body wash and hand wash):

• PEG-150 Pentaerythrityl Tetrastearate (a binder and skin conditioning agent); 
• Cocoamidopropyl Betaine (skin conditioning agent)
• Phenoxyethanol (a preservative); 
• Benzyl Alcohol (a solvent and preservative).  

The links are to each ingredient's info page on EWG's Skin Deep - Cosmetic Database a really useful page that has loads of information about different brands, products and the ingredients in various cosmetic products.  Go on it, type in the names of the products that you use on a regular basis and start freaking out about how bad they are! haha.  The last two ingredients listed (Phenoxyethanol and Benzyl Alcohol) also make the Green Beauty Guide's list of 100 ingredients to avoid.

This could be completely wrong, and is based on my very limited chemistry knowledge (ie high school), but I wonder if the two skin conditioning agents are required because the alcohol products that are used as a preservative are drying?  I think this a way too over simplification (ignoring the solvent and binding agents) but just a thought.

However, from what I understand, these products although chemicals may be a better alternative to other chemicals that are used.  So the best of a bad bunch maybe??  Also Sukin says on its website that where preservatives are used they are "within the recommended usage levels as outlined by the relevant parties in Australia, the US, EU and Japan".  The EU and Japan consistently seem to have high safety standards and ban many products that are considered safe in the US so this is comforting.  Sukin also discloses all the ingredients that they use here.

But... on the plus side

On the plus side, Sukin products have no sodium lauryl sulphate, synthetic fragrances, animal derivatives, harsh detergents, propylene glycol, artificial colours or parabens and they are 100% vegan and 100% carbon neutral.  So they are a LOT better than your average cosmetic product.  The other advantage is that the products are well priced.  From what I understand, being certified organic is an expensive process, if Sukin became certified organic the prices would probably increase as well.

I used the shampoo and conditioner this morning and loved them.  The shampoo did seem a bit drying on my hair (with its 12 year build up of blonde dye) but the conditioner sorted it out fine.  The body wash was also really good.  Great fragrance and it still felt like normal body wash.  Maybe it was also reassuring to have something a bit more natural after looking at the long list of chemicals in the shower for the last few weeks.  Love the Rose Hip Oil and Rose Hip Hydrating Day Cream as well.  And the Rose Hip Oil is certified organic so no complaints there!

Also, remember that the four ingredients listed above are just four out of maybe 20 ingredients and the rest of them look fine (I may be wrong on this as well, but I'm in no way an expert at nasty ingredient spotting).  So if you're walking through Chemist Warehouse (as an aside, have you noticed how, on the sign, just before the words "Australia's Cheapest Chemist" it says "is this?" in VERY small letters.  Like as if they may have got done for misleading advertising once...?) and tossing up between Sukin and another brand, 95% of the time Sukin would be the way to go (the 5% is in case you come across a certified organic brand).

Maybe its a gradual process and in a few months/years I won't be happy with any potentially harmful ingredients but for now Sukin is a whole lot better than what we previously had (Palmolive and St Ives body wash and a collection of different shampoo/conditioners) so I think the change is only positive!

An allergic reaction to mascara

This blog has come about because I have been doing a lot of internet based, non scientific research into products that I use on a regular basis.

I have recently had a few bad allergic reactions to make-up that I had used. I've always reacted to lipstick in one way or another and have just avoided wearing it unless I have lip balm underneath. However, I recently bought new mascara and a week later had a reaction to that.

Because I've never reacted to mascara before I was interested to see what the ingredients were to see what I could have reacted to.

I am allergic to rosin or colophony (and all the similar products with various other  names  - hydrogenated rosinate, colophonium, tall oil, abietic acid, methyl abietiate alcohol and pentaerythrityl hydrogenated rosinate) but until then had not known that rosin would be used in mascara.

Rosin, in its natural form is a sap that is in trees.  I appear to be allergic to it in its natural and synthetic form.  It is found in numerous products including plasters, sunscreen, waxes, face paint, fake tattoos, ink and various cosmetics (DermNet NZ has a really good fact sheet about the allergy and what products include it).

It is surprising that it has taken me this long to get around to looking at what it is that I react to and finding out its chemical names so I can identify it.  But I think that may be because when you look at the list of names above it is a pretty hard task to remember them all and read the back of the ingredients list each time at the supermarket.  Unhelpfully they don't just say "rosin or a derivative".  The trial and error approach works 90% of the time.  Companies also change the formula of products and do not have to warn us.  So a risk is that something that I may have used for years will suddenly become infected with rosin and I'll end up with a hideous reaction to it.

Back to the mascara, while I was waiting for L'Oreal to send me the ingredients list I did some google searching to see if anyone else had a similar reaction to mascara.  The main reaction that was documented was an allergic reaction to shellac (see here).  This was a surprise - I knew shellac as a extremely long lasting nail polish and had heard it was used in wood glaze or floorboards.  I had not heard of it being in make-up.

This was the point when I started wondering what else was in make-up. If shellac is in make-up and no one bats an eye lash (ha ha) then what else is hiding in these products that we slap on our faces every day.  I decided I may as well write down these findings in case anyone else is interested, and for my own benefit as well.  So, that's the premise for the blog so far.  You never know, I may get sidetracked and begin blogging about cats. But for now it is a "What's Really in our Food" style blog about chemicals and household/make-up products.

From what I have discovered so far I think it is almost better to be in the dark about this! So read the posts at your own peril.  There are a number of products that I either thought were natural, or generally safe, but aren't really.  It is also interesting to see how much (read: not much) testing is actually done.  Websites that focus on the safety out ingredients (EWG's Skin Deep is a great one) don't often have much information about the products.  Considering the same websites also publish full studies when they have them I doubt it is for lack of trying to get the information.

Oh, and it turned out that the mascara that I used (Maybellene Great Lash, black, waterproof) contained hydrogenated rosinate so no surprises that I had reacted to it!

Photo credit: pumpkincat210 / Foter.com / CC BY