Lick Your Lips

I am a gruppie. That means that I like to look cute and wear lipstick while keeping my body and the earth healthy and safe.

Over the years I have worn tubes and tubes of lipstick. Finally it dawned on me this summer that I had no idea where the lipstick went went it disappeared. Does the worn lipstick fly in the air back to some unknown lipstick factory in the sky? I must have been eating all of my lipstick! Seriously gross.

So, I smartened up and tossed all of my fancy smanshy lipstick tubes and compacts. I performed my usual Google search and found the Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database. Basically you can type in any brand, name or category of a health or beauty product and they will rate it on a scale of 0 to 10. Then, Skin Deep will tell you about all of the horrible diseases and reactions that your product can cause.

WARNING: This site is addicting. You will put in every health and beauty product that you or anyone in your family has ever used. You will be horrified. You will call your Mummy and beg her to toss her bar of Lever 2000 soap. It has a seven rating and can cause endocrine disruption and cancer. My new soap, made by Kiss My Face has a zero rating. Beautiful.

After the soap, I started by looking for a lipstick with the lowest possible number I could find. Most of the lipsticks with ratings of one were only available in the UK and Australia. Damn you UK and all of your wonderful products!

Finally, I found a company out of California. Afterglow Cosmetics lipstick rates a measly one. A huge improvement. The brand I was using before has a sky high rating. I was practically insured that it will cause some horrible disease in my future.

Remember when we used to chose makeup brands because they didn't test on animals? Then it we had to worry about foreskin testing? Now it is dangerous chemicals and additives. What is a busy gruppie to do?