We all know that some women put a lot of time and effort into looking beautiful, especially here on campus. Eye shadow lightens their eyes, mascara gives their eyelashes definition, and lipstick gives their lips a fuller, more colorful appearance.
And, of course, both men and women are usually pleased with the cover-up results. However, what many of us don't realize is exactly what goes into makeup.
Like bat poop.
Mascara has long been rumored to contain bat feces, or guano, to thicken eyelashes and give them a darker appearance.
Fear not of bat excrement, though. According to the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, the rumor is false. Guano may well have been used to make the first forms of guanine, a key ingredient in many brands of mascara, but today's technology has advanced so far that instead of bat poop, cosmetic companies use fish scales.
"The color additive guanine is approved by the FDA and listed in the Code of Federal Regulations," wrote Irene Malbin, of the cosmetic association, in an e-mail. "By law, guanine must be derived from fish scales."
Phew, and I thought women were putting something strange on their eyes.
But wait, there's more.
Ladies, the next time you look at your eye shadow or lipstick ingredients, check for carmine dye. The expensive red dye in its pure form is supposedly worth more than gold.
Why then is it made out of crushed insects? That's right. Carmine dye is derived from crushed cochineal insects, a type of scaled beetle. Carminic acid is extracted from the inside of the cochineal's body or from its eggs in order to produce the dye.
Every time you put on some red eye shadow or lipstick, it's possible you could be lining your face with crushed insects. This is somewhat of a troubling fact considering the average woman eats between four and six pounds of lipstick in her life, according to beauty experts.
Yet, there's no reason to worry. The dye is approved by the FDA, and if it makes you feel any better, it was once used in Tropicana orange juice and is still used as a coloring additive in many foods today.
Besides just being plain disgusting, makeup can also be downright dangerous.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the most common injury from cosmetics is from scratching the eye with a mascara wand.
These wand injuries certainly are not magic.
Eye infections can result if the scratches go untreated and these infections can lead to ulcers on the cornea (a clear covering of the eye), loss of lashes, or even blindness. To play it safe, the government agency explains, "Never try to apply mascara while riding in a car, bus, train, or plane."
Eye infections can also result from unsharpened pencils.
Eyeliner pencils build up with bacteria over time, which can lead to infections if left unkempt. In extreme cases, partial blindness is a side effect.
Further, we all know that makeup can dry out skin or damage it with harmful oils that lead to acne, but did you know that some preservatives in makeup might also lead to cancer?
Bithionol, mercury compounds, vinyl chloride and other ingredients have been linked to cancer and are only permitted in limited use for cosmetics. However, the FDA only regulates color additives in cosmetics, leading to a "buyer beware" attitude of consumerism.
But women of today face nothing compared to women who first started experimenting with makeup. Early make-up composites contained lead, contributing to lead poisoning cases that commonly scarred faces and in some cases, led to death.
So the next time you put a little glamour on your face, make sure you research the product's ingredients. Just because a face lotion has SPF, it may not be sun proof.
As my roommate found out, her Neutrogena face lotion with SPF 15 actually has a warning on the back label for an acid it contains that leads to sunburns.
Make-up is, and always has been one of the most expensive lies in history.
Just make sure your beauty is worth the cost.
Ty Thompson is a journalism senior. Send your makeup horror stories to: tyler.w.thompson@asu.edu.
