Non Toxic Makeup-Lip Color Without Heavy Metals

The Big Problem with Most Makeup

Conventional makeup can contain so many terrible ingredients.  But, there was one class of ingredients that concerned me the most and that was heavy metals.  The reason why I really wanted to avoid heavy metals is because I believe mercury played a big part in causing the chronic fatigue that I had.  So, I was very interested in avoiding mercury and other heavy metals.

There was one problem though with trying to avoid heavy metals in makeup-makeup can contain heavy metals even if it is not listed in the ingredients.  The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics states that “Heavy metals like lead, arsenic, mercury, aluminum, zinc, chromium and iron are found in a wide variety of personal care products including lipstick, whitening toothpaste, eyeliner and nail color. Some metals are intentionally added as ingredients, while others are contaminants”.

So, sometimes heavy metals are intentionally added to makeup, but sometimes the raw ingredients themselves are tainted with heavy metals.  This means even natural brands of cosmetics can contain heavy metals.Usually the metals are found in the ingredients that are used to color the makeup.  So, it is fairly easy to find uncolored things like lip balm that are safe to use.  But, I wanted some color lip products!

The first thing I found that had some color and was heavy metal free was the Hurraw Black Cherry Tinted Lip Balm.  The “tint” or color comes from a safe ingredient called alkanet.  Alkanet rates a 1 on the EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Database.  1 is the best rating and it means that alkanet rates very low in terms of toxicity.

All the other ingredients in Hurraw Lip Balm are also very clean and safe.  The ingredients are:  Carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil*, Prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil*, Euphorbia cerifera cera (candelilla) wax, Theobroma cacao (cacao) seed butter*, Cocos nucifera (coconut) oil*, Ricinus communis (castor) seed oil*, Simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil*, Olea europaea (olive) fruit oil*, natural flavor, Tocopherol, Alkanna tinctoria (alkanet) root extract.

All of these ingredients are rated as very safe on the EWG website.

Related: 10 Best Non Toxic Lipstick Brands

So, obviously I love how safe the lip balm is.  But, I also love other things about it.  The lip balm feels really good on my lips and it doesn’t dry out my lips.  Sometimes I have trouble with lip products being too dry when I try to put them on.  I am 40 so I probably need moisturizing type products.

Some of the other natural lip products I have bought go on smoothly, but dry my lips out as the hours wear on.  Hurraw lip balm feels good going on and seems to help my lips stay smooth. 

The color of the Black Cherry balm is really good for my skin.  It is a basic color and it isn’t very dark at all so I think it would work for a lot of skin tones.  It is lighter than regular lipstick.  I like it light though.  I use the color alone, and I like to mix it with some of my other lipsticks that would be too bright alone.  So, basically I use my lip balm a lot!

I often put it on as a base layer before my other lipstick because it is such a good moisturizer and because I like the blend of colors I can get when I use two products.  I like lipstick that is a dark pink color, but I like to wear just a little of it.  When I use my Black Cherry Lip balm first and then add just a little of the dark pink lipstick, it is perfect for me.  You can see an example of my blended lip colors in this recent Christmas picture-

And, one other thing about Hurraw Lip Balm-it is way cheaper than any of my other natural lip products!  You can check it out on Amazon here.