Do you believe we have a moral obligation not only to this planet but to each other? Think about it for a minute. Take as much time as you need. If you found out that somebody wanted to profit by hurting us and our environment would you want to know? For days my insides had been in knots trying to determine what it is that I was supposed to do with the information I had just found. To the untrained eye this one little fact is nothing but to a trained Beauty Professional like me this is more than even I could ever believe.
My professional designation is governed by the UK, International Beauty Specialist Level 11 ITEC (https://www.itecworld.co.uk/qualification-category/beauty-therapy/), so it is no wonder that ingredients and the way that we behave and interact with our environment is VERY important to me. It’s not lost on me that the #1 ingredient in Color Street’s lipstick is DIMETHICONE which is a petroleum derivative. Which means CRUDE OIL on your lips BARF.
Dimethicone is actually banned in Europe for how detrimental it is is on the environment (https://peachesandblush.com/the-european-unions-ban-on-silicone-in-skincare-products/). Once I saw that this ingredient was in their lipstick I went on to discover that it was in their lip liner and nail strips too. I have contacted other nail strips companies to see if this is an ingredient required in the formulation of nail strips as that is where dimethicone has primarily turned up. Both companies I have reached out to have confirmed that they do not.
Dimethicone can be used in small concentrated doses to treat extreme dry skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It acts as a temporary filler preventing water evaporation by trapping it on your lips. What a horrible thought and concept when you are dressing up the focal point of your face.
Hurting our environment shouldn’t be our concern when it comes to beautifying our life. Why should something that looks up to us for protection be paying the ultimate price? This petroleum derivative takes a lost of energy to become dimethicone which is a complete unnecessary ingredient and has been used #1 as a filler.
I wish it stopped there so I dug deeper and notice that they included aluminum hydroxide which is used to treat indigestion and ulcers and I am unsure why. I know what you are thinking how did I come to this conclusion and it came about when I compared two products that I loved. One with the claims of Creme de Lux Lipstick and the other well are you ready to hear what they included next….synthetic beeswax (https://www.happiary.com/synthetic-beeswax-in-your-creams-and-lotions-no-thanks/). Another killer to our environment
I get maybe the thought process on this one but not when other lip lines are using mango and shea butters. Synthetic beeswax was engineered to match the properties and appearance of beeswax but there are some concerns. Primarily with how it is made. They take fatty esters, acids and alcohols along with high molecular weight hydrocarbons and blend them together making synthetic wax and a lot of environmental toxins. I would rather not.
Nobody could understand why this product was so drying and damaging to the lips and it didn’t last past an hour, if that and that was by utilizing a lot of tricks until I looked closer and was horrified at what I found. SYNTHETIC WAX (https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredients/706414-SYNTHETIC_WAX/), which is #4 by the way, was designed primarily to bond chemically with car paint. Uhm say what? This wax was used to help the paint bond to cars in order to provide a deeper, longer, lasting, protected color to last the life the car had on the road.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want something that is bonded to my lips like I was a Buick. What on Earth would that ingredient do to my lips once I took it off?
At first this was my journey as I explored a life more beautiful but all the alarm bells started going off once the first ingredients were read off. I couldn’t believe what I was reading or that this was something that was even possible.
My whole journey there was talk about expansion but now there is no denying it is a dream that is unfounded and very well put off. You can’t bring a product that is banned in another country which leads to the question can this product even be carried into the UK? DIMETHICONE is almost in every single product that Color Street carries sprinkled in with other ingredients that we should know about.
The last ingredient I will speak about is isopropyl alcohol ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol) which is in the nail strengthener. This is a substance I used to clean my bongs with and I have always been very careful not to get it onto my skin now you want me to marinade my nail bed with it. Why? Prolonged exposure to isopropyl alcohol can lead to skin rash, irritation, dryness, itching and redness. All things that have been happening to my nails. I can’t be the only one this is happening to. Exposure to this ingredient is toxic and it something we should all be made aware of. Isopropyl Alcohol is so dangerous it is recommended to only spray it on surfaces and never directly.
My fear is what long term exposure to any of the chemicals can actually do. We already know Europe has exceptionally high standards and I hope it is only a matter of time before North America begins to follow suit. We only live once so shouldn’t we try to reduce our impact at least a little bit? Look at me. I am all about being extra and over the top but never at the expense of another living being or the environment.
We need to raise our standards and how we view ourselves and our world. It is not ok just to fly under the radar and watch the rest of the world slip us by. How obnoxious of us to keep ignoring what the rest of the world is doing. Who knew that the price for beauty would be our planet. That’s a price to high to pay in my thoughts.
Miss Ruby Sweet Cheeks 