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.

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.