Update: Fantastic Faces Cosmetics

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.

http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=67 - color match to Elektrik
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=68 - color match to Flashy

http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=69 - color match to the sold out FFC yellow, which I believe was called Sunnyshine
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=70 - color match to Phizzle
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=71 - color match to Baybee
http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=72 - color match to Outrageous

http://www.tkbtrading.com/item.php?item_id=73 - color match to Flame

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.

Regarding Neon Pigments

I'm sure by now that most of you have already read about this elsewhere from more prominent bloggers, but I wanted to put another post out there for anybody who is looking for answers and unable to find them elsewhere.  Fantastic Faces Cosmetics is a company that was started fairly recently, headed by a woman who calls herself Ms. Stephanie.  She recently released a collection of neon pigments that had heads turning and eyebrows raised in the beauty blogger community.

Above: pigments sold by an E-bay seller as cosmetic-safe, Below: Ms. Stephanie's neon "shadows."  She has asked that her pictures not be used by others and some have respected that request.  However, I feel that she has completely disrespected a number of people by attacking them and/or banning them, so I have decided to show her exactly as much respect as she has shown me and my peers.  TKB lists all of their neons as not eye safe, and the FDA does not approve any neon pigments for eye use.  Before I started blogging, I had done an extensive amount of research on a couple of shady companies I had heard of lately; it actually is what inspired me to start a makeup blog.  I wanted to do what I could to sing the praises of cosmetic companies that run their businesses correctly and warn others of companies who don't.  The fact of the matter here is that no neon is FDA-approved for use on the eyes, but here Ms. Stephanie has somehow magically found a way around that and created neon pigments?  People wanted to know more, so they started asking questions.  Some already knew that there was no way the pigments could be safe, so they addressed the issue accordingly and were promptly removed and/or banned from the Fabulous Faces facebook fan page.  I would post a link, but I've been blocked.  For the record, I posted this in response to Ms. Stephanie saying that her customers could believe what they wanted, but she wasn't going to stop doing what she is good at: "Nobody is asking you to stop making cosmetics; they are only asking questions for their own safety and the safety of others. Not labeling full-size cosmetics with ingredients is against FDA regulations, and being an indie brand does not make you exempt from following them. It would not be acceptable just to put 'mica' on a label either, as every mica actually has many different ingredients in it; for example, a mica called "Cosmetic Fluorescent Strong Pink" on TKBtrading.com contains red 28 and polyester-3, and is not approved for eye use. A pigment being labeled as cosmetic grade does not mean that it is approved for all cosmetic uses. It may mean that it is acceptable for use on lips, but not eyes, or vice versa, or that it should not be used directly on the skin but you can use it in small amounts in soaps."  My subsequent banning took about ten minutes, and there was no response from Ms. Stephanie.

There's no way for me to tell for sure, but I'd wager money that it's not up anymore if you visit the fan page.  She has responded to inquiries about the content of her neon shadows and the lack of labeling and ingredients disclosure with statements that her pigments are 100% eye-safe, the only ingredient she uses is mica, and she is getting labels soon.  It is obvious she has previously had no idea what FDA regulations are for labeling and safe ingredients, or has blatantly disregarded them.  I myself, and several other bloggers, have tried to help her understand that she is in direct violation of these regulations and she obviously has no interest in becoming compliant.  I hope that she comes to her senses and pulls these products before somebody suffers a serious injury and she has a much bigger issue on her hands than a couple of curious customers and some blog posts.

You can read more about the debacle in these posts:

Cupcake's Quirky Corner made a post about the safety of neons, and then wrote a follow-up including her own experiences and some detective work, and another follow-up.

And the Snarky Princess made a post regarding her ingredient inquiries and the response she received.

*EDIT* 6/12/11 5:48 p.m.  Ms. Stephanie posted on the facebook page at approximately 2:30 p.m. that she is discontinuing the neon shadows, but made no statement about the safety issues.  She should definitely have made a statement about the shadows and the fact that they are not eye-safe, but at least she pulled them from her line.  One follower responded that she was glad she got two sets before she stopped distributing them.  I hope that this customer does not run into any issues with the  shadows, and I am glad that Ms. Stephanie (sort of) did the right thing.  I can say now that I will never place an order from this company, but I truly hope she turns things around.


*EDIT* 6/15/11 2:23 p.m.  I will say that I didn't trust her further than I can throw her, but lo and behold, Ms Stephanie has gone against her word and is still offering the neons in sample packs offered through a shop add-on on her facebook fanpage.  Her other store, where the neon "shadows" were still listed as a "last chance" item after she made her flimsy statement, appears to be closed at the moment.  The shadows in the sample packs are chosen at random, and oops there are totally neon shadows in the picture she used to illustrate what they might look like.  After pleas and attempts from bloggers and concerned members of the indie beauty company, she has chosen to continue selling these dangerous pigments.  If she will sell them straight, who's to say she wouldn't mix them with other colors?  I can only hope that she will pull the pigments and bow out gracefully, but I just don't see that happening.  I implore you not to purchase from this seller, and to spread the word about unsafe pigments.