Mineral Make Up - Is It a Good Alternative or Just Another Cover Up?

We were curious about mineral makeup at a BCAM conscious cosmetics meeting some years back when discussing cosmetic alternatives. Not much was known about this "new wave" of cosmetics that were supposedly benign and did so many "amazing" things with "just minerals". The jury was out and we were left with very little information to go on. The hype around this makeup seemed so good. Was it too good to be true? Today I stumbled across a great blog post by Mindful Momma that has helped to sort some of the wheat from the chaff. While I still the think the jury is in need of some thorough discussion on this topic, it does seem that there are some clear problems arising out of seeing mineral makeup as a "safe alternative" to existing cosmetics.

Mindful Momma points out that the problems include nanoparticles (small enough to penetrate the skin barrier, and therefore enter our bloodstream), parabens, bismuth oxychloride, dimethicone, and talc. Each of these has carcinogenic potential and other possible health side effects. So, if these are in the big name mineral makeup compositions (and there is little to go on to suggest that large cosmetics companies wouldn't shove in these things if they're already doing so for their other cosmetics), then we cannot trust that mineral makeup is a healthy alternative at this stage, unless the labelling is so clear and so truthful as to rule out the addition of these problematic chemicals and techniques.

Check out Mindful Momma's alternatives for now. We're not vouching for these as we haven't tested them or examined them ourselves, but at least she's offering a possible solution to the dilemma at the moment and you're free to make up your own mind about makeup. And yeah, we think that's a fairly catchy phrase to be keeping in mind! I do like, however, that she suggests supporting smaller businesses is a good thing because that comes full circle to the idea that we keep our lives local, sustainable and as informed as possible.