Home of the SafeMama Cheat Sheets!

Sourcing Safer Products For Families Since 2007.

Ditch the Dyes Cheat Sheets

Mama Safety in Cosmetics

By Kristie Turck •  Published 12/16/07 •  2 min read

Last updated on August 19th, 2022 at 11:07 pm

This one falls under the “For the Mama” category.

If you’re living in Minnesota, no doubt this week you’re hearing about a ban on mascara. Starting on January 1st, any beauty products containing mercury will no longer be allowed to be sold in the state of Minnesota.

“Mercury does cause neurological damage to people even in tiny quantities,” said Sen. John Marty, the Democrat from Roseville who sponsored the ban. “Every source of mercury adds to it. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t here.”

Most makeup manufacturers have phased out the use of mercury, but it’s still added legally to some eye products as a preservative and germ-killer, said John Bailey, chief scientist with the Personal Care Products Council in Washington. That group doesn’t track mercury in beauty products and favors a national approach to regulating cosmetics, instead of laws that vary from state to state.

Federal law allows eye products to contain up to 65 parts per million of mercury. The exposure a person would get from a product used in small quantities around the eyes would not cause a problem, Bailey said.

“It’s added at very low levels, and for good reason,” he said.

You can read the rest of the article here, but it’s got some very key points, one being that there are many chemicals in cosmetics that aren’t on the label, which is very disturbing to me. I’m not sure about you, but as a girly girl, and as I get older and hopefully wiser, I would like to be still able to wear my make-up and have it be good for me too.

You can search for safer cosmetics here. Let’s hope that the rest of the country follows suit. Kudos to Minnesota.

Keep Reading