Comments on: 9 Weird Ingredients Hiding in Your Makeup Bag

By: Mary Kelly

Mary Kelly — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:29:33 +0000

I bought a little tube of this face cream because it had a five start rating. My animals even turn their nose up at it and walk away without getting petted. It has everything wrong for your face so I use it on my hands. First ingredient Mineral Oil, Beeswax, Lanolin, Fragrance (unless natural) is bad for skin, and 2 parabens. All these are bad for your face and my animals don’t like it on my hands and they lick their butts. Go figure.

By: Becks

Becks — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:20:45 +0000

My father, a farmer, used to grow red chili peppers for cosmetic companies. The red color of your lipstick? Yes, likely red hot!

By: Lulu

Lulu — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Umm…Floss you are wrong for once. Under #8, you claim Propylene Glycol is not toxic or harmful. PG is labeled as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA; however, it was did not go thru rigorous testing because it is so old. However, approximately 5% of the population (including myself) has a serious allergy to this substance and has even caused death in a few instances. And it is hidden in so many products that it is difficult to avoid. So no it is not harmless by a long shot. Ms. Crezo you need to do your homework better.

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:01:00 +0000

I prefer Udderly Smooth to Bag Balm, but they’re both good, and both include a lot of lanolin, another weird ingredient found in a lot of skincare products. Lanolin is a byproduct of the wool industry. From wikipedia, it’s “a greasy yellow substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals” and it works great. Reputedly discovered when somebody noticed that the ladies in the carding shop, in addition to having an unusually high rate of anthrax infection (aka “woolsorter’s disease”), had very nice hands from handling all that dirty wool.

Another weird chemical to list would be the various forms of EDTA. It’s a chelating agent, medically used to treat lead poisoning (and potentially very dangerous to administer), but in soaps it’s useful by stripping out the calcium and other crap that you get in heavy water, making the soap work better. (And it isn’t absorbed by the body, so it’s totally safe, even if you eat the soap. When EDTA is used medically, it has to be injected or it doesn’t even get in.)

By: twodollars

twodollars — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:41:00 +0000

@Cassie- Bag Balm is the only thing that works. Period.

By: hopefulever

hopefulever — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Does anyone know what is in Cetaphil? Ceta is derived (I think) from the word cetacian which is the family name for whales. Does Cetaphil come from whale products?

By: K

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:22:00 +0000

The truth is that the American make up industry is not regulated at all…does not have to pass FDA standards or anything…they could put lead in everything, and it would still make it to the shelf for sale.

By: collier

collier — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:11:00 +0000

1. Don’t buy *any* exfoliation product that used the little tiny plastic beads. They wash right down the drain, they’re a bugger to filter out, and they’re a notable contributor to oceanic pollution and extremely harmful to sea life. Actually, minimizing plastic use overall is a good idea. Personally, I’ve started using biodegradable/compostable (made from corn) trash bags, doggie waste bags, straws, etc. from ecoproducts.com, on the premise that every little bit helps. It’s amazing how much plastic crap you accumulate (and throw away) when you really start looking at it.

2. Pig vomit in perfume? Sounds apocryphal. Perhaps you’re thinking of ambergris, which is a, uhhh, digestive product of whales. Civet ranks (hur hur) equally high on the List Of Grody Things Used in Perfume. Anyway, sounds like a question for Cecil Adams.

By: Cassie

Cassie — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:29:00 +0000

Ever heard of Bag Balm? It’s commonly used by ranchers, farmers, etc. for chapped cow udders, and it contains urea. But it works amazingly well on chapped hands and lips too, obviously. I swear by the stuff… and I’m not dead yet!

By: flourish

flourish — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:17:00 +0000

Thanks for the article; it is scary how trusting we can be as consumers! Cosmetic companies pay top dollar for the uppermost layer of “stuff” from rendering plants. Rendering plants are where dead and diseased animals, rancid meat, and oils from restaurants are “recycled” if you will…eww! So, unless your bottle specifies that it contains no animal products, it likely does. And paying high dollar does not automatically prevent that. True story–a woman I know has an extreme sensitivity to certain cosmetics which she found out when she worked in a fast food restaurant in high school. While working there, she broke out in horrible rashes and had sores when using a particular brand of cosmetics. Turned out that particular company was a major consumer of rendering plant materials. Since she was exposed to it so much, her body developed a hypersensitivity to it.