The Changing Face of Natural Makeup
Natural Foods Merchandiser> Face it—the glowing, flawless beauties you see in commercials and on the pages of fashion magazines do a great job of selling cosmetics. That’s why the companies that dominate this $6 billion-a-year industry spend a bundle on marketing. But when it comes to makeup, is too much money being spent on packaging and celebrity spokesmodels, and not enough on the products themselves? “Yes,” says lifestyle and beauty expert Kat James. “Many mass-market makeup products are overhyped, irritant-packed products that are priced based on how they’re marketed, rather than on the cost of their contents.”
James, author of The Truth About Beauty (Beyond Words Publishing, 2003) says if the goal is to protect skin, consumers should avoid many of the ingredients commonly found in commercial makeup products. For example, the two most commonly used cosmetic preservatives, parabens and imidazolidinyl urea, both pose health risks. The latter has been shown to cause contact dermatitis, while James says the former have been found to collect in breast cancer tumors. A University of Reading study published in the January Journal of Applied Toxicology found that 18 of 20 breast tumors studied contained significant concentrations of parabens. Continue reading>>
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