lip service

I'm a lip balm junkie. Always have been. So I decided to pull a few of my favourites out of the bathroom drawer to see how the rate on Skin Deep.


Carmex
Bad news. Carmex came in at an awful 7 out of 10 with phenol and salicylic acid as its major hazards. Health Canada lists phenol as a prohibited ingredient in cosmetics. Salicylic Acid is a restricted ingredient on Health Canada's list. Both ingredients are associated with carcinogenic and developmental/reproductive toxicity issues. Enough for me to stay away from the Carmex.

Rosebud Strawberry Lip Balm and Moisturizer
I picked this up at Sephora a while back and fell in love with it. It really moisturizes and softens my lips. And it has a yummy strawberry flavour. Not that I eat it on purpose, but you can't help but taste it when it's on your lips. I was thrilled to discover that it rated 1 out or 10 on the Skin Deep website. I'm happy to not be throwing this one in the trash!

C.O. Bigelow The Classic Rose All Purpose Salve
I love this one! Unfortunately, I can't buy this one in Canada. I picked this up at Bath and Body Works in Chicago. It's similar to the Rosebud but with more of a lip gloss texture. Slightly more goopy and with more shine. This one wasn't rated on the Skin Deep site so I ran it through the new function that allows you to rate products that are not currently unrated. It also did really well, rating at a low hazard level with a score of 1 out of 10.

Philosophy Empower Mint Lip Shine
This is another one that I bought at Sephora. A great lip gloss that is very moisturizing. And with a great minty scent. This wasn't rated on the Skin Deep site so I plugged in the info. It ended up with a 3 out of 10 and a moderate hazard rating.

Recently I picked up 2 new lip products at Whole Foods.


Green Beaver Apres Ski Winter Lip Balm
My new favourite! It's incredibly long lasting and gives my lips a beautiful shine. And it's highly moisturizing. I ran it through Skin Deep and it came out with a score of 1 out of 10. Excellent! And it's made in Canada! (I've picked up a couple of other products from this company that I will review in future posts.)

Badger Tangerine Breeze Lip & Body Balm
A great daily lip balm with a yummy flavour. It also works really well under lipstick. I have very dry lips and find that lipsticks last longer on me with a layer of lip balm underneath. I went with the tangerine because of my love of citrus but it also comes in Chai Rose, Cinnamon Bay, Ginger & Lemon, Highland Mint and Lavender & Orange. It is also a low hazard product with a rating of 1 out of 10 at Skin Deep.

So there are a lot of great lip balm options out there that are safe and work well. Even though I have a few in my stash that I love, I'm sure it won't stop me from testing others...

bonus time

I've been a loyal Clinique customer for a couple of years now. I was lured in by their perfume 'Happy' after trying it a duty free shop while traveling to the Dominican Republic 3 years ago. Steve gave me some for Christmas that year and it became my perfume of choice. When it was time to replace the first bottle I discovered and incredible phenomenon. Clinique Bonus Time! At several times during the years at Sears and Holt Renfrew stores in Canada, when you purchase a minimum dollar amount of Clinique product, you receive a handful of samples sizes of other Clinique product in a lovely cosmetic bag. Quite often, one of the freebies is a full size lipstick. That alone retails at about $18. Clever marketing! They suck you in with the bonus, you try the sample products, and then you buy them. I went from just the perfume to the the make up remover, toner, cleanser, eye cream and moisturizer. Up until that point, I was strictly a drug store brand customer. I could not justify $30 for moisturizer when I could get something at Shoppers Drug Mart for $10. But the Clinique people "had me at hello."

So I received a flyer from Holt Renfrew a couple of days ago advertising the latest Clinique bonus. It just so happens that I am almost out of moisturizer. So I surfed on over to Skin Deep to check the ratings on my current products. The news was very bad. I won't go into the details. Let's just say that I likely will never be enjoying Clinique Bonus Time again. While this does make me a bit sad as a woman who is a bit addicted to shopping for cosmetics (even though I don't actually wear a lot of makeup), I am happy that I am now purchasing choices that are healthier for me.

So I paid a visit to Goodness Me! This small chain of natural food stores recently opened up a location in Burlington, where I live. I was blown away not only by the selection of products, but also the price. Most items where comparable in price to drug store brands and much less than department store brands. I picked up a moisturizer from Alba Botanica and a powder from Ecco Bella. The specific products I bought are not listed on the Skin Deep site but the companies rate way better than Clinique so I figure that's a good start. I'll give a full report once I've had a chance to test them out.

more on makeup

A day after I blogged about makeup, one of favourite podcasts, Lip Gloss and Laptops, released an episode on Holistic Beauty. This episode is full of excellent tips and products. I highly recommend that you check it out.

how safe is your makeup?

My awesome friend Elizabeth told me about the website, Campaign For Safe Cosmetics. This group is working hard to get the cosmetics industry to stop using toxic and unsafe chemicals in their products. It's a great site with a ton of information, including recipes for homemade products. (I promise to test some out and blog about them soon).

One of the links from this site is to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep. This site offers comprehensive data on the safety of health and beauty products currently available to consumers. Products are given a score between 0-5, 0 being the safest and 5 of highest concern. They rate everything from makeup to hair products to skin products to perfumes to dental products. Basically anything that falls into the health & beauty category.

I don't wear a lot of makeup but I thought I would check out my current staples, the stuff I use every day. Here are the results.

MAC Select Sheer Pressed Powder
Score 4.2

It turns out that my powder of choice ranks 172 out of the 175 powders tested. I have been dusting my face daily with carcinogens and immune system toxicants. Nice!

Bonne Bell Eye Definer Eye Liner
not on the list

Unfortunately this product is not included on the list. However, other Bonne Bell eye products are rated around the 1.5 mark. Hopefully this is a good sign for my favorite eye liner.

Cover Girl Volume Exact Mascara
not on the list

Again, this one is not on the list but it is a fairly new product. Unfortunately, the Cover Girl mascaras that are listed are not great. Of the 8 types tested the scores range from 2.5 - 3.7. Each of the 8 contain ingredients that are considered toxic. Not a good sign.

Blistex Complete Moisture Lip Balm
Score 3.7

This one is particularly painful for me as I am addicted to this stuff! My lips are dry all the time. In my youth, my lips would chap so badly that it would extend halfway up my upper lip towards my nose. Not a pretty picture. This is one of the few lip balms that has kept my lips moist. But it actually contains chemicals that are toxic to the liver and kidneys, not to mention the carcinogens. Suddenly, it doesn't seem worth it.

This eyeopening segment was brought to you by the letter "S" for this SUCKS.

changing for the better

I guess it is rather fitting that I begin this blog on Earth Day. I can honestly (and shamefully) say that this is the first Earth Day that I actually give a crap. Yes, I have been pretty good with recycling and I carpool to work, but that's pretty much it. In the last six months or so, I have become much more concerned about the environment and the amount of garbage and pollution that we create as individuals in North America. Everything is disposal and packaging is excessive. We have a pretty decent recycling program, but not everyone uses it. We continue to buy products that poison our soil and water. There is so much we can do to stop it but we don't. Why? We're too busy, too lazy, completely uninformed or we simply don't care.

With the environment and climate change being such a hot issue world wide I've really started thinking about what I can do to help. Yes I am just one person on this earth, but I can't be the only person trying to make better choices for our environment. As individuals we have so much power but we completely underestimate that power. As consumers we can choose to buy products that do not harm the environment. The more we do this, the more we send a message to industry that they need to change their ways.

So this is one of my first goals. Over the next few months, I plan to replace environmentally harmful products in my home with environmentally friendly products. Everything from cleaning solutions to cosmetics. I realize that this will be a pretty big change. There are so many items that I buy on a regular basis that adversely affect the environment. Some of my favourite products are ones that I will never buy again.

And it's not just the environment I am concerned with. We eat so much processed crap and use skin care products filled with chemicals. This can't be good for us and we've been fooling ourselves for years thinking that we can use these items and not suffer the consequences. I'm no scientist, but I'm sure that these things contribute to the enormous array of illness and disease that we encounter today. My goal in this area is to eliminate all processed foods from my diet and move towards using natural cosmetic products.

I don't expect to make these changes overnight and I'm not sure I will be 100% successful but I feel that I owe it to myself to try.

So here I go! Wish me luck.