It’s the darker side of cosmetics. The side I would rather not think about when I am slathering the slightly scent-y chemicals all over my face.  But it’s the ugly truth– a lot of our make-up isn’t good for you– it is, in fact,  toxic.

Here, I interview Stacy Malkan, from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry about the toxicity of make-up, how companies affect our self esteem and what all of us can do.

How did the campaign for safe cosmetics start?

We’ve started the campaign because we were concerned about a harmful substance–phthalates. A study that came out by the Centers for Disease Control which reported that women have higher levels of phthalates in their bodies than men.

Oh, wow.

And the researches didn’t know why, but cosmetics were an obvious possibility. I was looking at cosmetics and didn’t find phthalates on most of the labels. So we ended up sending a bunch of products to the labs to have them tested and found out that more than 70% of the products that we looked at—hair gels, shampoos, deodorants, etc.—contained phthalates. But they didn’t list the chemical on their labels. We reported this and got a lot of attention. There came a lot of interest in cosmetics and in the question “What else is in cosmetics?”

And what else is in cosmetics?

The, well, the big finding is that a huge number of personal care products including deodorants, lotions, make-up, and even baby shampoos, contain chemicals that are linked to cancer, learning disabilities, birth defects, asthma, and other health problems. The average woman uses about a dozen personal care products today containing more than 120 chemicals.

So, why do women wear make-up?

It’s cultural in some way, part of it has to do with this pressure for perfection. But part of it is also just for fun. It’s fun to dress up and play with make-up and play with different looks. I think people should be able to wear whatever products they want–it’s responsibility of companies to make those products safe.

So does it matter where I buy my make-up? Sephora versus MAC versus Whole Foods or Walgreens?

The first thing people wanted to know is “What’s the worst brand?” And we found that there wasn’t really a worst brand, because most of the major brands have very similar chemical formulations. And that’s true of the very expensive Sephora type products down to the drugstore brands– most companies are using the same chemical formulations.

And here an internal No Make-up Week struggle comes up. I like and use these products, but do I really need them?

Companies want to make us think that we need to have a different lotion for every part of the body or a different cleaning product for every room in the house– or five kinds of eye make-up. And the truth is we just don’t need most of that stuff. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements telling us we’re not good enough the way we are–but these products will fix us.

So can make-up be created without all of the toxic chemicals?

We absolutely can make make-up without toxicity. But as long as companies can put their products on the market and call them natural, pure— whatever they want—organic, they don’t actually have to make their products that way. What’s the incentive to change?

One thing that shocked me from your website was learning that many lipsticks still contain lead.

It is true. Many lipsticks do contain lead—in low levels.   But people should avoid any lead intake! One of the more disturbing things is that some companies have consistently much higher lead levels in their lipstick than other companies, these include Revlon, Cover Girl, L’Oreal.

So as you’ve studied this, what have you noticed about how women feel about their natural faces?

We all know that airbrushing happens but to really see it in action, I was shocked. I have a section in my book about a great film  where this woman Jessie Epstein interviews airbrushers. And they hated showing her how each photo is worked over 20, 30 times, making women thinner, changing body shape, changing skin tone–making them inhuman! I think there’s a tremendous amount of pressure and a constant harassment saying we’re not acceptable the way we are. So we should buy products to achieve some idealized beauty that is just unrealistic.

Do you think it’s important to consider not wearing make- up at all?

I still like make-up. It’s fun and I like to wear it. I want it to be safe. I don’t want to worry about carcinogens. But looking into this certainly has changed my habits dramatically. It’s about thinking about where am I being manipulated.  And that’s what we should talk to teenagers about, about the amount of manipulation that goes on with their self-esteem.

What’s the No Make-up Week message from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics?

My message is to ask: what’s in this stuff, is it safe and is it necessary? It’s overwhelming too to think about how much power the beauty industry has over our life.  But the real story is that we have the power because we get to decide which products we put on our bodies and which companies to support with our money.