Skylighthope asks… I recently came upon this product and was very curious about whether or not it works. The product is called Huge Lips Skinny Hips Lip Gloss and serves two purposes…a lip plumper, and also as an appetite suppressant through the ingredient hoodia. Does this product actually work, and is it safe? =)

Left Brain gets lippy…
Some people think I’m a little too cynical but that is just wrong. I love the idea of products like this! It’s a novel and creative idea that could really change the face of cosmetics if it actually worked. Imagine a lipstick that looked good and helped you lose weight. But sigh, it looks like they’ve put out the marketing hype before all the science was worked out.

Will “Huge Lips Skinny Hips” plump lips?

As we saw in this previous Beauty Brains about lip plumpers, there are only two kinds that actually work.

Type A: A moisturizing lipstick that smoothes out wrinkles and makes lips look moist (pretty much any lipstick).

Type B: A product containing an irritant like menthoxypropanediol that actually irritates lips and causes a inflammation response.

Neither will be permanent but your lips will look more plump.

The Huge Lips Skinny Hips product is more like a Type A product relying on a moisturizing ingredient like Meadowfoam emollient. But it also contains Lemonpeel oil that can be irritating like menthoxypropanediol products.

Will Hoodia suppress your appetite?

The makers of Huge Lips Skinny Hips have included some Hoodia extract in the formula implying that it will have an appetite suppressing effect. While there have been some preliminary studies that showed Hoodia has this effect, the conclusion is tenuous at best. Hoodia has never been proven to help people lose weight. Plus, the amount of hoodia you’ll get from this product is so minimal, it’s negligible.

A better idea would’ve been to consult the folks over at the Smell and Taste Institute and incorporate some of their tastant crystals. That’s not to say it would work either but at least there would be some science to back up the claims.

To Purplelab’s credit they admit that the Hoodia probably isn’t going to get you to stop eating. They just figure it can’t hurt. And the truth is, they are probably right. The small amount you might ingest will not have an effect one way or another.

How much lipstick do you eat?

There was one interesting claim at their website that said “women ingest up to 9 lbs of lipstick in their lifetime.” I tried to track down the source of this number, but couldn’t find anything definitive. This seems rather high to me. If that were true, that means you would use about 288 tubes of lipstick. Another common claim is 4 to 6 lbs which still means you would eat at least 128 tubes in your lifetime.

I looked up some ingestion data on Pubmed and found that on average women use 10 mg of lipstick per application.

So…

Assuming 4 applications per day
Every day of her life
For 70 years

That means she will ingest 2.2 lbs of lipstick in a lifetime. (This also assumes that everything applied gets ingested which we know is not true based on the amount of lipstick left on wine glasses).

2.2 lbs of lipstick in a lifetime

Beauty Brains bottom line

Since Huge Lips Skinny Hips uses ingredients that are listed in the INCI dictionary (the cosmetic industry standard book) it’s safe to say that this product is safe. It is also probably effective for producing plump lips for a short time anyway. But don’t expect you hips to get any skinnier. The weight loss claims are dubious at best.

How many tubes of lipstick or lip gloss do you use in a year? Leave a comment and let the other Beauty Brains community members know.

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The Right Brain reports:

In our modern world, life expectancies have dramatically increased. Now we’re not satisfied with just living longer, we want to live better – we expect to maintain a high quality of life as we grow old gracefully. And a new study shows that makeup can keep us happy as we age by actually improving the function of our brains!

Makeup secret

This amazing makeup secret is revealed in a research paper by Pola Chemical Industries and the Brain Functions Lab in Yokohama Japan which was published in the February 2009 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries. According to the researchers, they have scientific measurements that confirm what some people have long suspected – that wearing the right kind of makeup can lead to better activation of your brain.

They studied the effects of a new makeup on a population of elderly women with a mild cognitive impairment that could signal the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. (Women in this condition are sensitive to improvements in brain function.) They hooked the women up to an electroencephalograph (EEG) and measured brain activity  before, during, and after makeup application. The women were treated with eyebrow pencil, lip rouge, and a new kind of foundation that contained a powder made from the same kind of light reflecting PET polymers used to make privacy curtains. The result is a highly transparent, light dispersing powder that is ideal for aged skin.

After the makeup application it wasn’t surprisingly that the women subjectively reported that they felt more beautiful and happy. But it was surprising that the brain scan showed that their electrical scalp potential was stabilized. Essentially their brains were “activated” in a way that improved local neuronal impairments.  I’m certainly not a neurologist but it sounds like this is the first time anyone’s measured the impact of cosmetics on brain waves. How exciting!

The Beauty Brains bottom line

This single study doesn’t really prove much but hopefully it will lead to further work that could help us understand the neurological benefits of using beauty products. That could make us all happier in old age. And nothing makes me happier than a new sale on makeup. Time to go shopping!

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K is concerned…As I was applying my loose mineral foundation, and it occurred to me that I was inhaling these fine particles daily. Is this ok for my lungs? Is there any research or testing done on the effects of inhaling these powders daily? Thank you for your help! If it matters- my Coastal Scents foundation contains: Titanium Dioxide, Mica, Iron Oxides, Rice Powder, Zinc Oxide, Boron Nitride,Magnesium Myristate, Kaolin Clay, Ultramarine Blue. (They readily list the ingredients on every product they sell. I appreciate that!)

The Right Brain calms K:

You’re right to be concerned about the effects of chemicals that enter your body, K, but in this case there is research that indicates foundation powders are safe for every day use.

Foundation power peril?

There are really two questions here: Do the particles enter your lungs and if they do, are they dangerous? The first question can be answered by looking at particle size. Inhalation is basically a function of size: large particles can’t get into the sensitive areas of your lungs. The general rule of thumb is that particles have to be below 10 microns before they can work their way into your lungs. (For those of you who are metric impaired, a micron is a millionth of a meter. In other words its very very very tiny.)

Here’s why: According the National Institute of Health, our respiratory system is pretty good at keeping airborne particles out of our lungs. The upper respiratory system, consisting of the nasal passages, trachea, and associated airways are good filters. Particles 100 microns or larger don’t really enter the airways at all. Particles between 10 and 100 microns get caught on nasal hairs, nasal mucosa, or mucus-covered ciliated epithelium in the bronchi and bronchioles. It’s the stuff thats smaller 10 microns that are able to travel into the alveolar ducts sacs where respiration takes place.

What size are powders used in makeup?

According to a typical source of cosmetic powders, mica is somewhere in the range of 10 to 60 microns. So there’s little chance it will penetrate deep enough into your lungs to pose a threat. Particles of titanium dioxide, on the other hand, are only about 0.30 microns in diameter which means they are small enough to be inhaled. But that doesn’t automatically mean it presents a health hazard. According the the Annals of Occupational Hygeine, Tio2 has been studied and found not to present an inhalation danger, even in large quantities Similar results were found for zinc oxide, another common ingredient with a particle size of about 0.12 microns.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

There is research done to ensure that cosmetic powders don’t post a health hazard so there’s not much to be worried about from using foundation powder. If you have specific health concerns our legal eagle, Bird Brain, would encourage you to consult your physician. Or you could just cover your face with one of the stylish hats shown in today’s picture while you apply your foundation powder.

What do YOU think? Are you worried about breathing the cosmetics you use every day? Leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

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John User says: How come lip gloss needs preservatives though it’s a water-less product?

The Left Brain’s lippy reply:

Hi John, thanks for your question. It’s always nice to hear from our male members. (That sounds strange but you know what I mean.)

Lickable lips

It’s true that microbes need water to grow and that the level of water activity is one of the factors that determines how hospitable an environment is for microbial growth. But if you’re presuming that preservatives are only needed in aqueous products then you’re sadly mistaken. Even for anhydrous formulas, you have to consider if the product is likely to be pick up moisture that could support bacterial growth. In the case of lip glosses, this is pretty likely because of the moist environment the lips provide.

Lip gloss ingredients

How can you find the preservative in a lip gloss? I’ll show you a typical product Neutrogena MoistureShine Gloss:

Bis Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate 2, Petrolatum, Lanolin Oil, Microcrystalline Wax, Maleated Soybean Oil, Isopropyl Palmitate, Quaternium 18 Hectorite, Beeswax, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Propylene Carbonate, Jojoba Seed Oil (Simmondsia Chinensis), Tocopherol, Evening Primrose Oil (Oenothera Biennis), Safflower Seed Oil (Carthamus Tinctorius), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Rosa Canina Seed Extract, Tangerine Oil (Citrus Tangerine), Rose Flower Oil, Dipropylene Glycol, Flavor, Propylparaben, Mica, Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide, Red 7 Lake, Red 6, Blue 1 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Red 6 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake

As you can see, the formula is primarily composed of non-water, oily materials. And hidden toward the end of all those ingredients, you’ll find that “propylparaben.” This is a common oil soluble preservative. While it’s not really necessary to protect the formula during manufacture or while it sits on the shelf, it does provide protection from bacteria that the product might come in contact with once you start to use it.

By the way since I’m talking lip gloss ingredients, I should tell you that my all time favorite lip gloss is Almay Ideal Lipgloss because it contains the best sounding ingredient ever: “Synthetic Fluorphlogopite.” (Which should never be confused with natural Fluorphlogopite.)

The Beauty Brains bottom line

A good cosmetic scientists thinks about how to protect her product through its entire life cycle – which includes before and after the consumer buys it. And that means you might have to add a preservative you didn’t even know you needed.

What’s YOUR favorite lip gloss? Leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

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Thanks to everyone who read my last review on the Schick Quattro razor! Although I got a good tongue lashing from Lefty for posting a review, I was encouraged by the outpouring of support from many of the Beauty Brains community. So here’s another quicky glimpse inside my bathroom cabinet.

Warning: Do not read this if semi-banal product reviews turn you off. There’s another post on the page you can read instead. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings.

Maybelline Lash Stilletto Mascara

I love this product, especially the cutesy packaging. (It’s shaped like a high heel and, surprisingly, it stands up very nicely on my dressing table.) I like the way it distributes evenly when I put it on. It splits my lashes really uniformly – some mascaras make the middle lashes look one way and the lashes on the outside look differently. This one is very consistent. I think the secret is the applicator. It seems to take a very small amount of product to do the job. The wand looks like it hardly has anything on it at all.

But by far the best feature is how it thickens and lengthens without out clumping. With so many mascaras I’ve tried  that’s the trade off – I can get thickness but at the cost of a clumpy look. This one gives me the best of both worlds, and I adore it for that.

The only thing I didn’t care for is the slight base odor of the product. I can actually smell it for about 10 minutes or so after I put it on and that bugs me. But once that wears off, it’s just fine.

Does your mascara force you to make compromises? Leave a comment and share your gripes with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

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HeyHazelHazel…Recently I’ve heard that silica powder, like Coastal Scent’s silica powder spheres can cause Silicosis. I thought it was the same thing as Make Up Forever’s HD powder, which is also listed it’s ingredients as 100% mineral silica powder. Are they really the same? Are either of them going to cause Silicosis if I breath them? Both of them float around in the air really easily when you open their jars.

The Right Brain replies: 

For those of our readers who aren’t familiar with Silicosis, it’s a lung condition caused crystalline silica is inhaled. This chemical is toxic to the lining of the lung and causes a strong inflammatory response.  Over time this inflammation causes the lung tissue to become thickened and scarred. Symptoms of Silicosis include: chronic dry cough, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, trouble sleeping and nails with a bluish tint. But before you start thinking this blog is called the Bronchial Brains, let’s get back to cosmetics. 

Mineral Makeup

Fortunately for those of us who love mineral makeup, the kind of silica powder used in cosmetics is not a problem. Hydrated silica (aka silicone dioxide) is a mineral used in many mineral makeup products including Makeup Forever HD and Coastal Scents. This type of silica doesn’t react with lung tissue like the crystalline form does so these products are safe to use.  As Forum member Guiness pointed out, additional information on hydrated silica can be found at Cosmeticsinfo.org. So you can stop fuming about your foundation. 

The Beauty Brains bottom line

We’re glad we can help clarify the difference between confusing chemicals. There are many kinds of chemicals with similar names and sometimes it takes a chemist to really tell them apart. That’s what we’re here for!

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Tsunamino says…So I’ve heard about Smashbox Halo – a new powder that claims to hydrate your skin with encapsulated water and also prevent aging by using Gogi berries (did anyone else think Golgi apparatus?) as an antioxidant. My question is can your skin actually absorb anything from your foundation? If you use a primer as a “barrier”, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of this product? How can you encapsulate water in a pressed powder that is then shaved to produce a loose powder? Reviewers say that their skin feels hydrated, but the product description only says that the water gives a hydrated appearance. Any thoughts on this? Is this all marketing hype?

The Right Brain responds:

We’ve blogged about Smashbox products like OGlow Blush before and, while they make good products, we’ve found that they tend to over-exaggerate the benefits of their technology. Smashbox Halo seems no different. 

Powdered water?

The idea of “encapsulated water” is very very cool, but it’s not a new concept and it wasn’t invented by Smashbox. It’s a simple matter of mixing water with fumed silica under high shear conditions. The tiny silica particles coat the water droplets creating tiny water capsules. When you rub the powder the capsules break and water is released.  The cooling effect you feel as the water is released could provide the hydrated feeling that you asked about but it’s not enough to provide a true  moisturizing effect.  To really hydrate skin you need to add not only water but also an occlusive film that will prevent moisture from evaporating. The discrete particles in a powder can’t be as effective as a uniform film.

Smashbox Halo ingredients

Mica (CI 77019), Coco Caprylate/Caprate, Isopropyl Linoleate, Synthetic Wax, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Water (Aqua/Eau), Zinc Stearate, HDI/Trimethylol Hexylacetone Crosspolymer, Silica, Caprylyl Glycol, Butylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Barium Sulfate, Dimethylacrylamide/Acrylic Acid/Polystyrene Ethyl Methacrylate Copolymer, Ethoxydiglycol, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Lycium Barbarum Fruit Extract (Goji Berry), Trisodium EDTA, Peat Extract, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Palmitoyl Hexapeptide 14, Dimethicone, Gold (CI 77480), May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

The Beauty Brains bottom line

This product may be a perfectly fine perfecting powder but the hydration claim is just a cool gimmick that doesn’t really add much benefit.

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Magicalstephie’s makeup question… Is it safe to use makeup for other things than intended? I know some people use lipstick on their cheeks, but what about eyeshadow? Can you use it (in red shades of course) as lipstick or blush? Can you use lipstick on your eyes? Lip liner as eye liner and vice versa? I know you CAN but is it safe? I don’t want to get any bad effects from these things.

The Right Brain’s response: 

Very interesting question, Magicalstephie!  We can’t think of any significant danger posed by using eye makeup on your face. The only thing that MIGHT be a problem is using products on your lips that weren’t meant to be used there. That’s because lipsticks and lip glosses are made with ingredients that are meant for incidental ingestion (that means it’s okay to swallow small amounts.) The same is not true for eye or face make up. But the real potential danger is in using lip and face stuff on your eyes! 

Lip liner as eye liner?

This is a no-no! There are some ingredients that are used in face makeup that are not permitted to be used in eye make for safety reasons. Two most common examples are colors and preservatives. There are only a few colorants that are approved for use around the eyes while products for lips and face can use many, many more. The other thing to consider is bacterial contamination. While a little bacteria in your lipgloss won’t kill you if you ingest it, the same bacteria in your eye could cause infection or even blindness! This is an even greater danger if you’re using a product like mascara wand that can scratch the surface of your eye. So stick to eye products and be safe! 

The Beauty Brains bottom line

While cosmetics in general are very safe you do need to be extra cautious when applying products to your eyes.  

Has anyone else in the Beauty Brains community switched eye and face products? Leave a comment and share your makeup madness!  

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Beauty Bug is bugged: The Beauty Bug got into a mascara conversation with the Store Director of Sephora who said that all/most drug store formulations contained tar which makes your lashes fall out. Is this true?

The Left Brain responds:

We love these stories about how salon/specialty store products like Blinc and Darphin use safer chemicals than mass market products. If you compare the ingredients you’ll see that many of these brands use similar, if not identical, ingredients.

So how did this rumor about tar in mascara get started? It could be because “coal tar” dyes have been used in permanent hair colors. But these chemicals are not approved for mascara.

So you can rest assured that Revlon, Covergirl and the other drug store brands do not contain tar that will make your lashes fall out. Thinks about it – MILLIONS of women use these products. If they did make your lashes fall out, our cities would be filled with bald-eyed women!

By the way, if you’re interested in learning more, read our post on how mascara works.

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Here at the Beauty Brains, we believe that if you’re not innovating, you’re becoming irrelevant.  That’s why we thought we’d try a new feature.  We hooked Sarah Bellum up to a microphone and gave her a question to “perform”.

Take a look at this short video and let us know what you think.

Do you want to see more episodes of Beauty Bytes?  What topics would you like to see? And what would you like to see be different?  Leave a comment below.

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