Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: neilep on 18/12/2007 19:53:33
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Dear Lipstick Wearers,
See these lipsticks of all wonderful differing hues and tones ?
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Nice eh ?
I just found out today via daughter that most/some lipsticks contain fish scales !!...amazing the level of school education today !!
Whys that then ?....how on earth does a fish scale help lipstick ?
If you are a vegetarian/vegan lipstick wearer does this affect your conscience at all ? I'm not a veggie and it won't stop me from wearing it !
mwah mwah mwah !!
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Yeah, lipstick contains fish scales. Some lipstick, anyway. This could be the first E-mail factoid in the history of the Internet to have some grounding in reality. Sooner or later you knew something was bound to slip through.
The ingredient under discussion is called pearl essence. (Some sources give this as "pearlescence.") It's the silvery stuff found in fish scales that's used in some lipsticks, nail polishes, ceramic glazes, etc., to make them shimmery. Pearl essence is obtained primarily from herring and is one of many by-products of large-scale commercial fish processing. Synthetic versions have been developed, but to what extent they've supplanted the natural variety I hesitate to say. The cosmetics companies were not forthcoming and I got contrary stories from different industry observers. Fishermen still collect the stuff, though, and one presumes it's being put to good use.
What was interesting to me--I got numerous inquiries about this--was that people are still alarmed to discover that consumer products contain (oh, ick!) animal body parts. Gang, one hates to harp on this, but get a grip. Most of you eat hunks of dead animal every day! You wallow in the flesh of critters that once gamboled in the gardenias! (Frolicked in the foam, whatever.) You want the pearl essence to go to waste? It would otherwise be left over after they extracted the more obviously useful parts of the fish, and surely it's preferable to have the stuff wind up on the lips of women than on some heap of toxic slag.
Still, one wants to be thorough. I contacted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, figuring that any organization with the balls to urge college students to drink beer rather than milk because dairying hurts the cows was sure to have a horror story or two about how we oppress fish. No response, although you have to assume the hook and net thing isn't good. Prowling about on the Web I did find this description of how pearl essence is harvested: "The purse seine draws the herring up from the bottom and into an ever-decreasing circle, where the pumper [boat] pumps the fish out, and into the hold of the buyer's boat. In the meantime, due to thrashing in the seine and going through the pumper, nearly all of the herring scales are removed and diverted into bags on the pumper's deck." This is perhaps not the world's kindest process. I also learned that global herring production is threatened by overfishing, raising the specter of a world full of nonshimmering lips.
Pearl essence is just one of a long list of unsuspected animal ingredients in cosmetics. If you think fish scales in lipstick is gross, get a load of cerebrosides, used in skin-care products to create a smoother skin surface, increase moisture retention, heighten "luminosity," etc. According to the Food and Drug Administration, "the raw material for cerebrosides in cosmetics comes from cattle, oxen, or swine brain cells or other nervous-system tissues." Eww.
If you're bothered by this sort of thing you might prefer to get your cosmetics from environmentally aware companies such as Aveda. In addition to minimizing the use of synthetics and volatiles, Minneapolis-based Aveda relies on plant- rather than animal-based ingredients. "Some colors, for example, are very difficult to create without using carmine, but the company decided that crushing insects to derive the ingredient is unethical," we read. One smiles, but in the era of the rape of the rain forest it's charming to hear about a company so good-hearted that it wouldn't hurt--well, if not a fly, at least a Dactylopius coccus.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000331.html
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Holy Shmoly !!
Is there anything that is not covered by this internet thingy !! ?
THANK YOU PAUL....excellent info...I will also show daughty this too !!
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Hey I see three of my colors in there.. And I did not know that my lipstick had fish scales ewwwwwwey!
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Gross. The things we do for beauty! [xx(]
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No Kidding.. I have to check my tube labels!!! LOL
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No Kidding.. I have to check my tube labels!!! LOL
I doubt they will say 'Fish Scales'....it may be under some weird designated code !!...do you guys have ' E' numbers like we do over here ?
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On some things I think am looking at it now...
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Wholly cow you should see all the crud in my Maybeline lipstick... I cant pronounce most of it! Lots of stuff, tons!
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I'm just gonna pretend I've not read this topic. I'm NOT giving up my lipstick.
Awww Heck! If I can eat raw oysters, I can deal with a few fish scales in my lipstick. [:D]
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I had to have a magnifying glass to read the ingredients on my lipstick!!! It was the teeny tiniest writing and even with my glass it was difficult to read!!
No fish scales in my lipstick.. Sounds like all chemicals and tons of synthetic stuff! LOL waxes etc.
Active ingredients:
Allantoin 0.6%,
Octinoxate 7.5%
Inactive ingredients
Disopropl Dimer Dillinoleate,
Hydrogenated Polyisobutene,
polyglyceryl-2 Diisostearate,
Octydodecanol,
Bis-Diglycerl Polyacyaldpate-2,
polyethylene,
Squalane,
Simmondsia Chinesis (Jojoba)seed oil,
Ozokerite,
Microcrystaline Wax
Butytrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter),
VP/Hexadecene Copolymer Silica,
Tocopheryl Acetate,
Peg-5 Rapeseed Sterol,
Alumina,
Disteardmonium Hectorite,
Fragrance Isopropylparaben,
Butylparaben,
Isobutleparaben,
Glycerol Stearate SE,
Behenyl Alcohol,
Penaeythirtyl Tetraisostearate,
Palmiic Acid,
Stearic Acid,
BHT,
Propylene Carbonate,
Synthetic Fluorphopite,
c12-16 Alcohols,
Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate,
Calcium Sodium Borosilicate,
Ascorbyl Palmitate,
Letchin,
Tin Oxide,
Silica Dimethyl Silylate,
Polyethyene Terephthalate,
Polymethl Methacrylate,
Aluminum Hydroxide,
Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate,
Atelocollagen,
Dimethicone,
May contain Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Red7, yellow 6 lake,red 7 lake, red 28 lake, yellow 5 lake, red 22 lake, blue 1 lake, Carmine, red 36.
F.L.L. D10895/2
WOW That took me an hour because I had to use the magnifying glass and all the spelling on my end was atrocious! LOL I don't see fish scales but maybe there hiding under a different name.
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I had to have a magnifying glass to read the ingredients on my lipstick!!! It was the teeny tiniest writing and even with my glass it was difficult to read!!
No fish scales in my lipstick.. Sounds like all chemicals and tons of synthetic stuff! LOL waxes etc.
Active ingredients:
Allantoin 0.6%,
Octinoxate 7.5%
Inactive ingredients
Disopropl Dimer Dillinoleate,
Hydrogenated Polyisobutene,
polyglyceryl-2 Diisostearate,
Octydodecanol,
Bis-Diglycerl Polyacyaldpate-2,
polyethylene,
Squalane, COMES FROM SHARKS !!
Aluminum Hydroxide,
Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate,
Atelocollagen, COMES FROM SHARKS !!
Dimethicone,
May contain Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Red7, yellow 6 lake,red 7 lake, red 28 lake, yellow 5 lake, red 22 lake, blue 1 lake, Carmine, red 36.
F.L.L. D10895/2
WOW That took me an hour because I had to use the magnifying glass and all the spelling on my end was atrocious! LOL I don't see fish scales but maybe there hiding under a different name.
AWESOME KAren !!!. I so want to delete your post !! [;D] [;D]...there's two that I have highlighted that come from Sharks !!
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LOL, Why do you want to delete my post Kind Sir??? LOL!!! I worked so Hard On that...Squinting and struggling to see those letters! LOL!! Delete my post indeed! HEE HEE!
WOW WHAT PART OF THE SHARK HAVE I BEEN SPORTING ON MY LIPS????????
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LOL, Why do you want to delete my post Kind Sir??? LOL!!! I worked so Hard On that...Squinting and struggling to see those letters! LOL!! Delete my post indeed! HEE HEE!
WOW WHAT PART OF THE SHARK HAVE I BEEN SPORTING ON MY LIPS????????
I was just being nasty tease cos ewe said ewe took ages to write the post !!..
I found this about:
Shark Atelocollagen SS is a highly purified cosmetic material. It is produced by enzymatic digestion of the fresh skin of a cartilaginous salt water fish, the great blue shark (Prionace glauca), followed by succinylation of the resulting Atelocollagen to improve solubility at neutral pH as well as compatibility with other cosmetic materials.
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Hee hee, I was ribbing you also..LOL
Well Then Thanks for that information and me needs to rethink lipstick LUFF!!! It doesn't sound good at all.. I am not much for fish.. Some is ok.. but to wear it on me lips HMMMMM I don't know! Maybe thats my problem... It is acting as a repellent rather then an alluring attempt to attract The right bait!LOL LOL
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I see the much loved squashed beetles are in there too (Carmine).
Also, from Wiki, " Most chondroitin appears to be made from extracts of cartilaginous cow and pig tissues (cow trachea and pig ear and nose), but other sources such as shark, fish and bird cartilage are also used. ".
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Oh my gosh!Is that the same chondroitin one takes for joint mobility??
OH my there are lots of animal products in there!!!
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Bored Chemist is absolutely right of course.
You'd be surprised how many products use crushed beetles !!......Red M & Ms for instance !!
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Bored Chemist is absolutely right of course.
You'd be surprised how many products use crushed beetles !!......Red M & Ms for instance !!
Since finding out Fig Newtons contain parts of bees nothing surprises me now.
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Bored Chemist is absolutely right of course.
You'd be surprised how many products use crushed beetles !!......Red M & Ms for instance !!
I love M& M's, They are my favorite candy! NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
OHHHHHH Gag me with a spoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
NASTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! YUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!
NEILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
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That means I just ate this bag of crushed beetles..........WAHHHHHHHHHH!
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi17.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb73%2Fkarenw44%2Falbum%2520two%2FMMs.jpg&hash=6f436eda960e4f36ca268fed5965a41a)