How toxic are Revlon products? Pic by http://www.somethingtoconsiderblog.com
Since my last toxic makeup review was on a high-end brand (Urban Decay-to read it, click here), I thought I would review a popular drugstore brand next. Below is a quick rundown of some of Revlon’s best and worst rated makeup products. The ratings were obtained from the Skin Deep database by the Environmental Working Group (which can be found at www.ewg.org/skindeep). The rating scale is simple, ranging from 0-10 with 10 being the most toxic product score. As always, please keep in mind that formulations in cosmetics are constantly changing. Consequently, I encourage looking up product ratings before you buy them either on Skin Deep or www.goodguide.com (which also includes the company’s eco and social responsibility ratings). While Revlon has quite a few low-toxin products (168 out of the 1022 current products rated), overall most of their products were in the moderate or high toxin range. For the sake of brevity I did not list all 1022 products, but here are various examples of Revlon’s products and their ratings, starting from the worst scores.
10: Hair color. Do you really want this absorbed into your head?
9: Colorstay Mineral Blush in Roseberry, Colorstay Blemish Concealer, Silky Powder Bronzer in Sunkissed Bronze, Age Defying Makeup Foundation with Botafirm for Dry Skin
8: Certain Moondrops crème lipsticks
7: Some Super Lustrous Lip Glosses (ex. shade Nude Lustre 040), Photoready Powder, ColorStay Foundation for Combination/Oily Skin
6: New Complexion One-Step Compact Makeup, Nail Care Liquid Quick Dry, Cream Blush in certain shades (ex. shade Rosy Glow)
5: Nearly Naked Makeup (ex. shade Warm Beige), PhotoReady BB Cream Skin Perfector, Illuminance Creme Eye Shadow (ex. shade 725 Va Va Va Bloom), Just Bitten Lip Stain & Balm (ex. shade Dawn), ColorStay Ultimate Suede Lipstick (ex. shade Flashing Lights), Colorstay for Normal/Dry Skin Makeup with SoftFlex (ex. shade Sand Beige), ColorStay Liner For Lips
4: Matte Eye Shadow (ex. shade Vintage Lace), Colorstay 12-Hour Eye Shadow quads in certain shades, Luxurious Color Eye Line (ex. shade Black Velvet), Lip Butters (many hearts may be breaking over this, these are so popular!)
3: Certain shades of PhotoReady Concealer Makeup, PhotoReady Cream Blush (ex. shade Coral Reef), PhotoReady Mousse Makeup in certain shades, ColorStay Whipped Creme Makeup in certain shades, Colorstay Aqua Mineral Finishing Powder-Translucent, ColorStay 16-Hour Eye Shadow Quad (ex. shade Bombshell), Age Defying with DNA Advantage Cream Makeup, and nail polishes scored at least 3, at most 9
2: Super Lustrous Lipstick in many but not all shades, here’s a few: Sky Pink, Wine with Everything, Violet Frenzy, Peach Me, Smoky Rose, Coffee Bean, Apricot Fantasy, Sassy Mauve, Just Enough Buff, Cherries in the Snow; Photoready Kajal Intense Eye Liner & Brightener (ex. shade Purple Reign), Grow Luscious Waterproof Mascara, Custom Eyes Duo Shadow & Liner Palette (ex. shade Naturally Glamorous 020), Custom Eyes Mascara (ex. shade Blackened Brown 003), ColorStay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick in many but not all shades, here’s a few: Nude, Perfect Peony, Premier Pink, Prized Plum, Stellar Sunrise, and more; PhotoReady Eye Primer & Brightener, PhotoReady Makeup foundation (all shades)
1: ColorBurst Lipstick in the following shades: True Red 090, Rosy Nude 065, Fuschia 030
0: Remover for Lash Adhesive, Color Allure Nails, Medium nail glue
Please note I did not include products considered by Skin Deep to have an old formula (more than 3 years old), and also that not all shades of the same product will have the same score. Approx. 16.4% of the products I viewed were low toxin, which is honestly more than I thought there would be. But Revlon can certainly do better! Poor scores resulted from toxic ingredients such as multiple parabens (linked to reproductive toxicity, hormone disruption), BHA (linked to cancer, organ toxicity, hormone disruption), methyl methacrylate (linked to developmental toxicity, for example, fetal exposure in utero, breastfeeding infants, direct application exposure while still developing), and many more. Good Guide (www.goodguide.com), which rates product health, social, and environmental responsibility 0-10 (but with 10 being the best, no-toxin score) gives Revlon the following overall ratings: Health 1.9 (extremely poor), Environmental 3.9 (poor), and Social 3.9 (poor). Visit their website for more information.
Do what you wish with this material. Perhaps it will spur you on to changing your Revlon purchasing habits. If you feel inclined to take further action, there is a form letter on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website that you cane-mail to Revlon asking them to remove harmful chemicals from their products. They also have more information on the kinds of toxic ingredients in Revlon products as well as their linked health concerns (and much more). Here is the page: http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5500/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=15670
What did you think of Revlon’s ratings? Were you surprised? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts, questions, and requests for other brand reviews. Be good to one another and thanks for reading.
Resources/For More Information:
Not Just a Pretty Face by Stacy Malkan
“Be kind and compassionate to one another,” Ephesians 4:32
The video featuring some of the products mentioned:
Something to Consider 