Cosmetic Consciousness: Toxic Chemicals Do Not Belong in Anyones Personal Care Routine.

The Cosmetic Consciousness Project aims to raise the public's awareness of the alarming amount of toxic chemicals found in the ingredients of personal care and cosmetic products, and to encourage consumers to check the ingredients in products before they use or purchase them. 

The problem is that many consumers assume that cosmetics and personal care products are safe, for reasons as simple as their friends and family use and recommend them, or that these products are for sale on store shelves so logically they must be safe, or they have been using the same product for many years without any significant problem. In reality, many products contain ingredients that are linked with cancer, hormone disrupters, birth defects, learning disabilities and other health problems, all of which are documented in many scientific research reports around the world.

The other problem is that many people assume that the government is protecting us from these harmful chemicals, but they're not. While cosmetics fall under the the Food and Drug Administration's umbrella, the FD&C act clearly states that the manufacturer or marketer is responsible for assessing the safety of it's ingredients, and said manufacturers are not required to share their safety assessments, nor are there any specific tests or safety guidelines that exist for manufacturers to follow. It is also worth mentioning that the FDA does not require manufacturers to test on animals, but does not have a real problem with it when they do. In fact, the FDA does seemingly have the authority to ban the use of harmful chemicals used in cosmetic products, but they have only banned 11 since 1938, while the European Union has banned 1,373. Consumers of mainstream cosmetics and personal care products are using products with ingredients that are 89 percent unevaluated by legitimate and trusted institutions for public safety. 

So, it's up to us to do it ourselves and figure out what's poison and what's not. Through the distribution of stickers and the use of popular blogging platform Tumblr, the goal is to stir up a dialogue in both public and online spaces about the FDA's severe lack in regulating the cosmetics industry use of harmful ingredients, and also to inspire reform and change. The Cosmetic Consciousness Blog further serves as a resource of educational material and information about alternative products for men and women that are chemical free, eco-friendly, cruelty-free and widely available.

Cosmetic Consciousness Part 1: Sticker Campaign

Stickers are an artistic and resilient way to share ideas and incite dialogue in public spaces. Part 1 of Cosmetic Consciousness features three, uniquely designed 2.5” x 2.5” vinyl stickers to be distributed to the class and further to be posted in public spaces, with the intention to spread awareness to the cancer causing and environmentally destructive chemicals that are present in an alarming amount of cosmetic and personal care products. 

93 year old Chanel No 5 is the world’s best selling perfume, but in reality every single spray is metaphorically serving toxic chemicals in a fancy glass bottle. According to research from The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a substantial quantity of ingredients in many perfumes are linked with cancer, hormone disruption and potential allergens. The European Union has banned many of the ingredients contained in Chanel No 5 and subsequently forced Chanel to reformulate their product. Why doesn't the FDA care about us?

Traces of heavy metal elements found in lipstick should not be new information in 2014, as the FDA found traces of lead in 400 lipsticks in an extensive report published back in 2011. The problem is, that not enough has been done to eliminate lead from lipsticks, let alone other heavy metal elements. Aluminum, cadmium, chromium, copper, manganese, nickel, and titanium were found in twenty-four lip glosses and eight lipstick brands in a 2013 study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal. It’s no secret that heavy metal does not belong on women’s lips, so why does it?

In 2011, Environmental Defence of Canada took six ordinary women’s makeup bags and studied the ingredients contained within a total of 49 different face makeup items from a total of 35 different makeup products. 20% of items contained arsenic, 51% contained cadmium, 96% contained lead, 100% contained nickel, 90% contained beryllium, 61% contained Thallium, and 14% contained selenium. This study inspired me to design a skull wearing makeup, because skin is the largest organ in the human body and somehow it is widely acceptable to rub carcinogens all over ourselves. Just one more cigarette won't hurt in the same way one more spread of Maybelline across the lips won't hurt, right?

Cosmetic Consciousness Part 2: A Tumblr Blog Curated by Allison Daugila

The purpose of Cosmetic Consciousness is to raise the awareness of the digital audience to the presence of toxic chemicals in personal care and cosmetic products, and to subsequently help minimize the public’s exposure to them. The Cosmetic Consciousness Blog hosted on Tumblr, is a free and accessible resource available to anyone in the world with an internet connection and access to Tumblr. The purpose of calling Tumblr Cosmetic Conscious’s home, is because Tumblr is a very social and supportive community that thrives on “notes” and the re-blogging other people’s posts, and is overall a positive digital space to share ideas and inspiration. 

Cosmetic Consciousness encapsulates alternative (clean, non-toxic, cruelty-free) products, educational references and resources, originally written product reviews, all of which are published in the spirit of hash tagging and re-blogging. Consumer’s demand for non-toxic, cruelty-free cosmetics and personal care products has without question gone up in recent years, and as a result there are thousands of products now widely available in local drug stores across America. While this is without a doubt a positive change, many of these brands lack advertising and remain unknown. Even more, most products are costly, and worse, some brands make misleading claims in reference to the product’s “all natural” ingredients, and in fact still contain some dangerous chemicals, in which we call this marketing tactic “green washing.” Either way, this all makes it impossible for this project to cover every single product, so it is strongly recommended that consumers examine the ingredients for known toxic chemicals before purchasing them on EWG's skindeep database.

The blog features five pages. The main page features every single post, with re-blogged posts playing as a slideshow. Next, the “About” page features the mission statement of Cosmetic Consciousness. Third, the “Products to Try page” are all posts hash-tagged #trythis, and may contain re-blogs and personally written reviews of products that contain safe ingredients and were not tested on animals. Fourth, the “References and Resources” page are all posts hash-tagged #refs, and include a wide variety of websites such as organizations, other helpful blogs, and companies that are dedicated to being a resource for the public about the harmful chemicals lurking in cosmetics and/or providing information about alternative products that are safer to use. This page also includes some studies that have been done on the subject. Last, the “media” page are posts hash-tagged #media, which include short informative videos and some magazine and newspaper articles done on the subject matter.

Bibliography

1. Blum, Deborah. "Poison Pen: Color and a Little Something Else." The New York Times, NewYork edition ed.: D4. 2013. Print. 
2. Defence, Environmental. Heavy Metal Hazard: The Health Risks of Hidden Heavy Metals in Face make Up. Toronto, Ontario M5V 2K6:, 2011. Print. 
3. Defence, Evironmental. The Manscape: The Dirt on Toxic Ingredients in Men's Body Care Products. Toronto, Ontario:, 2012. Print. 
4. Environmental Working Group. "EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetic Database." 2014.Web. <http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/>. 
5. European Commission. "List of Substances Prohibited In Cosmetic Products." European Commission Health and Consumers. Cosmetics. CosIng. 2013.Web. <http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cosmetics/cosing/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.details_v2&id=91071>. 
6. Heather Sarantis, MS, Commonweal, Olga V. Naidenko, PhD, Sean Gray, MS, and Jane Houlihan, MSCE, Environmental Working Group, and and Stacy Malkan, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Not so Sexy: The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance. Safecosmetics.org: Breast Cancer Fund, Commonwealth and Environmental Working Group, 2010. Print. 
7. "Leaping Bunny." 2012.Web. <http://www.leapingbunny.org/indexcus.php>. 
8. Liu, Sa, Katharine S. Hammond, and Ann Rojas-Cheatham. "Concentrations and Potential Health Risks of Metals in Lip Products." Environmental Health Perspectives 121.6 (2013): 705-10. Print. 
9. Safe Cosmetics Action Network. "The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics." The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics. 2014.Web. <safecosmetics.org>. 
10. Sarantis, H., et al. Retailer Therapy. www.safecosmetics.org: The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, 2012. Print. Ranking Retailers on their Commitment to Personal Care Product and Cosmetics Safety. 
11. United States. Cong. Senate. 111th Congress, 1st Session. 21 U.S.C. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act,§§ 9-361-364. United States Code. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2010.
12. United States Food and Drug Administration. "Product Testing." U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Oct. 05 2014.Web. <http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/ScienceResearch/ProductTesting/default.htm>. 
13. Wendlandt, Astrid. "What's in a Scent? Perfume Makers Adapt to EU Rules." Reuters 2014. Web. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/07/us-perfume-regulation-insight-idUSKBN0FC0EB20140707>.