S.O.S. Save Our Skin: DIY Lip Gloss
You work hard to take care of yourself. You eat organic produce, some of it grown yourself. You don’t use pesticides or herbicides on your lawn. You drink filtered water. You wash with fragrance-free, color-free and chemical free soap. (I wish I did all that!) BUT, you polish off your look with a touch of lipstick before you leave the house.
You might want to rethink that last step. Did you know the law doesn’t require cosmetic products or ingredients to receive FDA approval, and it doesn’t require cosmetic firms to share their safety data with the FDA? That’s why Revlon’s and Proctor & Gamble’s Cover Girl lipsticks get away with having Lead in them. https://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ProductsIngredients/Products/ucm137224.htm
Lead is one of those heavy metals that our bodies accumulates, leading to an increased risk of high blood pressure and kidney damage in adults.
Since women lick their lips, they swallow their lipstick, and all of its ingredients. http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health
There’s some silly stuff out there about the amount of lipstick women consume over their lifetimes, but Pamela from AustinElements https://austinelements.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/how-much-lipstick-do-you-eat-in-a-year-and-over-your-lifetime/ did a cute calculation and came up with about 1/3 of a pound. Even though that’s way less than the silly amounts reported elsewhere, it’s still quite a bit of lip product, and quite a bit of easily avoided heavy metals.
“Hey!” you cry, “I don’t want to give up my shiny lips!”
No problem. Make your own lip products. That way you can be sure what you put into your mouth is safe. If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself! And while you’re at it, invite your daughter to leave her cares behind for a couple of hours, and experiment with you.
DIY Island Lip Gloss Recipe
What you will need:
- 1 tsp grated beeswax
- 1 tsp grated organic cocoa butter
- 1 tsp organic coconut oil
- 1 tsp organic macadamia or other nut oil
- 1 tsp organic light sesame oil
- 1/8 tsp vitamin E oil
- organic beetroot powder
- several small containers
- 1 tween/teen daughter
- 1 double boiler
- 1 mirror
- 1 camera
- 2 hours of dedicated time (including clean up and conversation)
Melt first 6 ingredients together in a double boiler. Add a pinch of organic beetroot powder for color. Stir well until all are mixed. Distribute into the small, clean containers. (Source: Janice Cox’s Recipe, EcoBeauty, from “Dangers in the Cosmetic Bag” by Kathleen Barnes, Natural Awakenings, November 2015).
Add varying amounts of beetroot to each container to experiment with the color intensity. Model the colors for each other while you discuss other ways to make healthy cosmetics. Take pictures! A good time will be had by all. While you’re at it, have your tech-savvy offspring Google additional homemade skin care products that you can make together.
Last week’s S.O.S. Save Our Skin article explained why pimples should be celebrated for the service they provide. If you enjoyed those two, next week’s S.O.S. Save Our Skin article will compare commercial face masks with homemade ones.
Meanwhile, if you used or created any other homemade cosmetics, I invite you to share them at info@AwesomeMomTribe.com.
