Hi, readers! So it's been awhile since we all heard about the antics going on over at
Fantastic Faces Cosmetics. Ms. Stephanie said she was discontinuing the neon pigments, and then said she was shutting down completely to take a short break. However, as anybody who has been following this company knows, Ms. Stephanie is about as trustworthy as you can expect somebody to be when they continue to sell harmful dyes as eyeshadow after repeated warnings that they are not intended for cosmetic use. So she's still selling and she still has the soap dyes listed in her store as eyeshadows. No surprise there, but there have been a few new developments.
Since our last encounter with FFC, Ms. Stephanie appears to have purchased a domain name, and has posted an ingredient list
which you can find here. She has, once again, listed mica as an ingredient and we all know that's not an ingredient according to INCI standards. The only other additives she lists are titanium dioxide, iron oxide, ferric ferrocyanide, and tin oxide. Titanium dioxide is a white colorant approved for eyes, lips, nails, and face. Iron oxide can be red, orange, yellow or black in color (although the only color I saw when I searched for it on
TKB was red,) and it is approved for eyes, lips, nails, and face. Ferric Ferrocyanide is a blue pigment that is approved for eyes, nails, and face, but not lips. Nothing came up when I searched for tin oxide on TKB, and from a quick Google search, I found out that it is an abrasive that can be absorbed through the skin. Sounds totally safe to me. So all in all, Ms. Stephanie's ingredient list includes a white colorant approved for all areas, a red/orange/yellow/black colorant that is safe for all areas, an eye-safe blue colorant that is not lip-safe, and an opacifying skin irritant. No carmine, which is found in many brighter red-toned pigments, and no chromium oxide green, which is found in many green-toned pigments. Nothing that would act as a base for a lip product, and certainly nothing that would be a UV-reactive, so we know she's still not disclosing all of her ingredients. Wonderful. Now I'm not saying a skilled formulator couldn't mix a yellow pigment with a blue pigment and make a green pigment; that's plausible. It's already been established, though, that her supplier purchases from TKB, where the only iron oxide available is red. As most children in preschool would be happy to point out to you, having only a red pigment and a blue pigment limits the colors she is able to produce to reds, blues, and purples.
On a slightly related note, remember up there how I said ferric ferrocyanide is approved for eye use but not for lip use? Do you also remember the green pigment I mentioned up there, chromium oxide green? That colorant is also considered safe for eye use but not for lips (it is not considered eye OR lip safe in the state of California.) Ms. Stephanie has formulated several lip glosses that happen to be blue and green in hue. If her disclosed ingredients are correct, the blue lip jellies contain an unsafe blue pigment, and the greens contain the same blue mixed with a safe yellow pigment. So either way they aren't safe, but I speculate that the blues were formulated with ferric ferrocyanide and the greens were actually formulated with chromium oxide green. If evidence is provided that these are not the colorants used in these lip glosses, I will happily retract that statement (although that would still mean her ingredients list is incomplete.) There ARE lip-safe blue and green colorants out there, but you do have
to look for them; TKB has conveniently placed lip-safe items in a
lipstick section, and there are no green or blue micas in that section that match the jelly colors.
I'm certain that reputable companies producing green and blue lippies are doing their homework and using safe colorants, but since Ms. Stephanie has been caught selling soap dyes as eyeshadow and falsifying ingredient lists, I wouldn't put it past her.
Lastly, for those who haven't seen the "micas" being used in the neon set, which is now conveniently being referred to as the bright set, I want to provide links for the neons available from TKB, (all of which have a clear disclaimer stating that they are soap dyes and not approved for cosmetic use,) and cite which FFC colors they match.
I sent Ms. Stephanie an E-mail on 10/3/11 with the above links to the neon pigments and also informed her of the possibility that she may unwittingly be using unsafe pigments in her lip glosses. I think it's safe to assume that she has nothing to say to me, given that her website states that all E-mails will be answered "with in 24 to 48 hours " [sic]. She has threatened and harassed both bloggers and potential customers just for asking about her ingredients, she posted a horrendously incomplete ingredients list, and is claiming her "bright" pigments are "100% safe" with the disclaimers "if you do not feel comfortable with these products please do not purchase them." and "if you feel you may have an allergies to any of the listed ingredients use at your own risk" [sic]. If you are claiming a product is safe, while at the same time telling your customers to use at their own risk, chances are that said product is not safe. The moral of the story is: do your homework and go with your gut. If a company seems suspicious, it's very likely there is a reason you feel uneasy with them.
