Do you feel great about the mascara you use? Or have you read those stories about mercury and other toxic chemicals in mascara and wondered whether you should have shifted to an all natural mascara a long time ago?

Worry no more! Kris Carr, the fabulous blogger who calls herself the “Chief Unicorn” at Crazy Sexy Wellness, pulled together this incredibly useful infographic to help make it easier to buy the best, safest, non-toxic-est mascara available on the market today. This was no mild undertaking! Over a year, Kris polled her social media community, reviewed many different brands, then evaluated products through four different lenses: the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep ratings for toxicity in personal care products; the Leaping Bunny and PETA analyses of cruelty-free products; whether ingredients included animal products; and how they performed. The result? The “Ultimate Crazy Sexy Mascara Smackdown,” captured in the chart below.

The good news is, there are plenty of all natural mascara options to choose from. So if you haven’t made the shift yet, now’s as good a time as any to get going. If you can’t wait to go shopping at the mall, drop by our Amazon store, where we sell several of the brands Kris recommends.

To see what else Kris has to offer, visit her website here.

To make the shift to all natural mascara, start here.

The post All Natural Mascara – Non-Toxic, Safe, Lead-Free appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 But your eyes? That’s another story, at least according to the United Nations Minamata Convention, so named because thousands of people in Minamata, Japan suffered mercury poisoning from contaminated industrial wastewater.

The UN convention last week decided that companies can use mercury in mascara and other make-up until safer alternatives can be found. B why use mercury in the first place? Evidently it’s an effective preservative and germ-killer. However, it’s also a powerful neurotoxicant that can cause kidney damage and serious neurological effects. If you’re pregnant and exposed to mercury, your baby’s brain could be affected.

To date, no scientific studies have researched the impact that the levels of mercury found in eye make-up could have on human health. Still, Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the consumer watch-dog group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, says (quoted here in Scientific American) there’s no reason “a known neurotoxin should be allowed in any of these products” because alternatives exist. Most manufacturers just aren’t using them.

Fortunately, several cosmetics companies committed to public health and safety as well as beauty do exist, and they’re producing mercury-free mascara as well as other non-toxic make-up options. Here are the ones I know about. If you have other recommendations, please leave them in the comments below.

Suncoat Sugar Based Natural Mascara

Afterglow Pure Soul Mascara

100% Pure  Fruit Pigmented Mascara

Tarte

By the way, for added safety:

* Store mascara in a cool, dry place.

* Toss it after about three months, whether the tube is used up or not. Bacteria can multiply in older tubes and cause eye infections.

* Don’t apply when you’re driving (duh!). Many optometrists report treating women who scratched their corneas while trying to apply mascara in a moving car!

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The post Is There Mercury in Your Mascara? Probably. appeared first on Big Green Purse.