Are Mac Lipsticks Lead Free

Shutterstock
Lipsticks

Answer: Could your lipstick contain lead? Yes, it’s scary but true! That’s why I’m so passionate about finding the best lead free lipsticks! That gorgeous shade you put on your lips could contain lead, which is a neurotoxin, in small doses. In 2007, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics set off a media storm when they reported that they detected lead in about two thirds of the 66 lipstick products they tested. Eventually the FDA followed up with its own studies. The FDA found lead in more lipstick and other cosmetic products, often at levels higher than those originally discovered. Aug 19, 2021 12 Amazing Tips To Improve Skin Texture. Improving your skin texture allows you to feel more confident about yourself, and it can help to prevent skin-related problems, such as wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, fine lines, and age spots later.

By/May 19, 2021 11:30 am EDT/Updated: Aug. 9, 2021 2:01 pm EDT

If you've ever wanted the fresh and glowy supermodel face, a beauty advisor at your local Sephora would probably point you toward Charlotte Tilbury. Charlotte Tilbury is a professional British makeup artist who has done makeup for several A-list celebrities and has been lead makeup artist for the Victoria's Secret's Fashion Show (via Charlotte Tilbury and Beauty Packaging). Tilbury released her own makeup line in 2012, per Allure, and since then the line has been a big hit. But with the bombshell look you get from Charlotte Tilbury products comes the bombshell prices.

The company has some cult favorites, like their Hollywood Flawless Filter ($44), Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder ($45), and the Matte Revolution Lipstick in Pillow Talk ($34), via Allure. The Hollywood Flawless Filter is a tinted, luminous primer that you can wear on its own or under makeup for a dewy face, while the Airbrush Setting Powder contains emollient rose wax and almond oil, so the powder doesn't dry out your skin. The Pillow Talk lipstick is a rosy-nude lipstick that gives you that 'my lips but better' look. But if you want that smoke-show look without breaking the bank, the good news is that there are plenty of more affordable products, or dupes, that will give you an identically flawless finish.

Achieving a flawless complexion using drugstore alternatives

Are mac lipsticks lead free makeup

Beauty guru Tara Lynn listed drugstore dupes to popular Charlotte Tilbury products on her YouTube channel. Among them, she listed NYX Born to Glow Liquid Illuminator ($7.50) as an alternative to the Hollywood Flawless Filter and the FLOWER Beauty Light Illusion Liquid Foundation ($14) instead of Charlotte Tilbury's Light Wonder Foundation ($44).

Lynn says that the FLOWER Beauty foundation offers more coverage than the Charlotte Tilbury foundation, but that FLOWER Beauty's shade selection isn't as extensive as Charlotte Tilbury's. Jessica Braun, another makeup reviewer on YouTube, suggested L'Oréal Age Perfect Radiant Serum Foundation ($15.99) as a slightly more glowy and higher-coverage dupe to the Charlotte Tilbury Foundation.

Jessica Braun used to apply the Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder under her eyes, until she found a better, and cheaper, dupe — the No. 7 Lift & Luminate Triple Action Translucent Finishing Powder ($12.99). Braun said, 'It's really a finely-milled powder. It's brightening. It's blurring.' Braun added, 'This does an even better job at flattening out that area [the undereyes].'

Cheaper products that give you a sultry supermodel look

Charlotte Tilbury's Luxury Eyeshadow Palettes ($53), via Sephora, which consist of four shades, are a popular item, but they seemed lackluster to Braun at first. 'I just wasn't impressed. Given the price you pay for just a quad, they should be really good' (via YouTube). Braun ended up trying their Pillow Talk quad, though, and ended up loving it to the point where she almost used up one of the shadows in the quad. But then she bought the Revolution XX XXpress Quad in XXposed ($15) and found it to look virtually the same on her eyes.

'It's an incredible dupe,' said Braun. It's not the first time the Revolution brand has managed to duplicate Charlotte Tilbury. In fact, Makeup Revolution caused controversy when they released their since-discontinued Renaissance Lipsticks, for allegedly copying the Pillow Talk Lipstick, down to Charlotte Tilbury's signature packaging, per Cosmopolitan UK.

Are mac lipsticks lead free makeup

But if you do want dupes of the iconic Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Lipstick, Stylecaster listed a few alternatives, like NYX Matte Lipstick in 'Euro-Trash' ($6), Maybelline Color Sensational Inti-Mattes Lipstick in 'Almond Rose' ($5.79), and MAC Cosmetics Amplified Lipstick in 'Cosmo.' While MAC Cosmetics' lipsticks are $19, they are still cheaper than Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks ($34). MAC also has a recycling program called 'Back 2 MAC,' in which you can give six empty, used MAC containers for a free lipstick.

Well, this explains a lot about children’s beauty pageants: the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics tested 33 brand-name lipsticks, including brands like Cover Girl, L’Oreal, and Christian Dior, and are reporting that “61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).” One-third of the lipsticks tested had levels higher than 0.1 ppm, the FDA’s safety limit for lead in candy.

The FDA has a pretty low limit for lead in candy for obvious reasons, but the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says lipstick should be held to the same standards because it is ingested, and because pregnant women are “particularly vulnerable to lead exposure” and “lead has also been linked to infertility and miscarriage.”

A cosmetic trade group counters that the FDA has already set strict limits for lead in lipsticks, and that experts test the makeup thoroughly, and that the amount of lead a woman can get from lipstick “is hundreds of times less than the amount that she would get from eating, breathing and drinking water.” But according to Dr. Mark Mitchell, president of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice,

Are Mac Lipsticks Lead Free Paint

Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure.

The following brands make up the study’s “safe” group of less than .02 ppm, which means you can tart yourself up like there’s no tomorrow with these. But the study did not include every brand on the market, so unless your brand shows up elsewhere on the list, there’s no way to know how much lead it contains. To see the other lipsticks and where they fall in the rankings (apparently the “L” in “L’Oreal” stands for “Lead!”), download the report and jump to page 10.

    Lipsticks with less than 0.02 parts per million (ppm) lead
  • Avon Ultra Color Rich Cherry Jubilee
  • Body Shop Lip Colour Garnet
  • Body Shop Lip Colour Garnet
  • Clinique Long Last Lipstick Merlot
  • Dior Replenishing Lipcolor Red Premiere
  • Estee Lauder Maraschino
  • MAC Matte Lipstick Viva Glam 1
  • Revlon Superlustrous Love That Red
  • Revlon Superlustrous Bed of Roses
  • Revlon Colorstay Lipcolor Red Velvet
  • Tarte Inside Out Vitamin Lipstick
  • Wet N Wild Mega Colors Cherry Blossom
  • Wet N Wild Mega Colors Cherry Blossom

“Lipsticks contain lead, consumer group says” [Reuters]

RELATED
“A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead In Lipstick” [Campaign for Safe Cosmetics]
(Photo: Getty)

Are Mac Lipsticks Lead Free Paint

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization,Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.