Kelly,

Go to the two websites listed.  They have good information.  the "campaign for safe cosmetics' has the list and the other has 1000's (literally 1000's) of products listed and their ingredients and a rating.

Mercola's articles usually have the backup information in them.  All you need to do is 'click'.

I'd toss them all out. Its not only the lead you have to worry about in your lipstick or cosmetics, as Dr Mercola mentioned there are other toxic ingredients in all the "off the shelf" products, even the ones that claim natural and organic. Just check out the link provided by A Storm to learn what the ingredients are in your product. Its also as easy as reading the ingredients list of your products in the bathroom and your cosmetics bag...if you cant pronounce it chances are its a synthetic chemical or toxic preservative, and dangerous.

These are the products you put on your face, your body, your hair, under your arms, spray on your skin....they are absorbed into the body and accumulate in the tissues and organs.....parabens have been found in tumours taken out of breast tissue.

The only real guarantee you have of purity of product is to buy certified organic, to food standard. If the ingredients are free from synthetic chemicals, preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial fragrance, herbicides, pesticides etc you can feel safe in the knowledge that you are not loading your body full of harmful chemicals....

organicmum,

I agree with you.  When you start reading labels of products that claim to be organic, it just makes you mad sometimes! You see that they often have just as much chemicals and toxins as ones that do not claim to be organic.  

Manufacturers often throw out the label "organic" or "natural" because they know that it will sell.  I have learned my lesson. Always, ALWAYS read the label, even when products claim to be "organic."  Also, DO YOUR RESEARCH.  

I was so happy to finally make it to the health food store the other day (it is 30 miles away).  To my horror, I saw all kinds of soy products!  Of course, most of it was "organic." My point is this: the people that run the store have boughten the idea that soy is a health food.  

Employees at health food stores sincerely believe that the products they are selling are healthy [some are and some are not] and will extol their virtues to you, so you have to know your stuff.  They will sell you a shampoo with SLS or a lotion with paraben and think they have helped you get something healthy and good for you.

The motto "buyer beware" is especially applicable in such stores since we can be lulled into thinking that the products there must be good for us.

Go to cosmeticsdatabase.com and check out all the products that you use (everything that you put on your body).  I did.  I made a list of better products in the range 0-2 and am switching me and my family over to those.  It's not just the lead that's the problem, it's the long list of toxins the FDA allows in our product. One toxin works as an inhibitor to another and so on.  After your done showering you could encounter anywhere from 30 to 80 bad chemicals. Not a good way to start my day!  Check out the book Not Just a Pretty Face by Stacy Malkan if you really want to get informed.  

Ok 0.65 PPM x 454g/lb x 10 lb/lifetime = 2.951mg

Over the course of a lifetime this is really nothing  (and this is for the highest lead lipstick).  There should be rules about lead content, for sure, but let's keep things in perspective.  The limit on lead level in water is 10 ppb,  while the level of lead in the very highest lead lipstick is 65X this (650ppb or 0.65 ppm), one will clearly consume many thousands times as much water as lipstick in a lifetime.

Say the average person drinks 91291 lb of water at the 10 ppb limit in a lifetime, divide that by 65 and one gets the equivalent of eating 1404 lbs of this lipstick - therefore a person drinking water deemed safe would consume 140X as much lead from their water supply as from this 'dangerous' lipstick over their lifetime!  

According to the produce lady where I shop the tainted Jalapeno peppers recently taken off the market were mexican.

Jalapeno's are back in the stores because the US crops are finally ready for harvest.

If the shoe fits, blame whoever is responsible.

wisesolu,

I doubt that devout Seventh Day Adventist women are aware of the dangerous chemicals in lipsticks and other cosmetics.  However, following their conviction has kept them safe.  There are many benefits to following Biblical convictions that may not at first be apparent.

The passage you are referring to (I Peter 3:1-4)states that a woman's adornment should be an inner beauty, not just from outer things such as braiding hair or wearing jewelry or fancy clothes.  It doesn't necessarily state that a woman should never do those things, but instead says her true beauty will be in her "hidden person of the heart."

As a "devout" Christian, I have no problem with women that wear make up, though I myself wear it only occassionally.  As a whole, I think we women could stand to wear a lot less make up.  Wouldn't it be nice if women (men too, for that matter) started putting as much or more focus on being inwardly beautiful as we do on looking good on the outside?

~Claire~