100% Paraben Free Lipstick & Lipgloss

Red Apple Lipstick has done it. Red Apple has made a safer lipstick. Did you know that Paraben has been linked to breast cancer? Read on, this is serious stuff!

Mission Accomplished! Red Apple Lipstick is outstanding and Paraben free.

What in the world IS Paraben?

Parabens are a widely used preservative; an alkyl-para-hyroxybenzoate. A compound of esters with is a combination of acids and alcohol combined again with p-hydroyxbenzoic acid. Sound nice eh?

Why would Paraben be in Lipstick?

Simple. Paraben makes an item like a lipstick survive a nuclear holocaust while it sits on the shelf waiting to be sold. It's literally, a preservative.

So what's the big deal? Breast cancer and fertility issues! THAT's the big deal.

Over the last decade and half, it has come to light that parabens are repeatedly found in breast tumors. SO, this tips Dr. Phillippa Darbe to perform a massive study in 2004, which was published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, in which she identified measurable concentrations of 6 different parabens in biopsy samples from breast tumors. The PARTICULAR PARABENS WERE FOUND in relative concentrations that closely paralleled their use in the synthesis of cosmetic products (Rastogi, 1995).

In 2008 Darbe continued her studies, and from these studies she discovered that Parabens are estrogen mimickers, with the potency of the agnostic response being related to the chemical structure. They also can bind to the cellular estrogen receptor (Routledge 1998). On top of that, Parabens also increase the expression of multiple genes that are normally regulated by astradiol and cause human breast tumor cells (MCF-7 Cells) to grow and proliferate in vitro. This was discovered by Byford in 2002 and again in 2007 by Pugazhendi.

With specific regard to lipsticks the danger increases significantly as your lips very easily absorb everything that goes near them. The lips are a receptor. They are an early detection system to keep toxic things out of your mouth. Wanna be sure about that? Cut open a jalapeño pepper and rub the open end on the back of your hand and then rub the open end on your lips. You can imagine it already.

So you tell us, IS THIS A BIG DEAL?

So Red Apple Lipstick, what have you done about this?

We don't use any paraben of any kind in our lipstick.

Without Parabens, does this affect the final product?

Yep. Sure does. First affect is the lipstick is way safer. Matter of fact, our lipstick is probably the safest on the planet. We designed it that way on purpose. We had the choice and we decided to go the safer route.

Second affect. The shelf life is shorter. Instead of lasting 30 years in a warehouse, Red Apple Lipstick has a shelf life of 1 to 1.5 years. Since our lipstick is manufactured boutique style and here in the United States, we can produce smaller batches, which eliminates the problem. We also felt that if you hung onto one of our lipsticks for a year and half without using it up (cause it's awesome) then we had bigger concerns. Big Box competitors of ours, you know, those drug store brands and big box brands, they manufacturer everything in China in enormous batches in order to be cheap (which kind of grosses us out entirely to think about a container load of lipstick sitting in a factory in China, and then on a boat for a month, and then on a dock for weeks, and then on a UPS truck, and then more trucks, and then store shelves. No telling how much foreign air has surrounded those lipsticks)

References:

http://www.breastcancerfund.org/clear-science/chemicals-glossary/parabens.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraben/
http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/06/21/what-are-parabens-and-why-should-you-avoid-them/
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1263
http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/bibliography/general/bib.parabens.cfm