By Abbey Potts

Lead isn’t just found in pencils anymore, but surprisingly makes its way into your favorite makeup products. In fact, we discovered that many of our favorite high-end makeup brands are major offenders of including lead in their products.

Lead primarily gets into lipsticks through FD&C and D&C dyes which give them their color. While the Food and Drug Administration’s monitoring of the small, “safe” amounts of lead is slightly reassuring, we thought it best to avoid these contaminants and opt for a more organic way to beautify. Luckily, so many cosmetic brands are coming out with organic makeup products that have all-natural ingredients.

There has been quite a buzz about mineral makeup. What is it? Mineral makeup is a cosmetic that lists inorganic pigments (minerals) such zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, mica, and iron oxides as primary ingredients. These are pigments with natural color derived from the earth. How is it different from standard formulation cosmetics? From a makeup artist’s perspective, it is primarily differentiated by its more sheer nature. Also, since it is powder-based, there are less binders than standard makeup formulations typically have.