Photo credit:  Kristin Olsson 

Kids love face paint. What better way to become a pirate or a princess or a butterfly or tiger than with face paint, right?   

Unfortunately, most store bought face paints have really toxic chemicals including lead (and high levels of it) talc (linked to cancer), chromium, barium, endocrine disrupting fragrance chemicals 

I now cringe a tiny bit when I see a face painting station at  birthday parties or fairs because, truthfully, the struggle is real.  The kids LOVE getting fun designs and I don't always want to be the mean mom that says no…. but you can’t unknow what you know!

HERE IS WHAT I KNOW

Problem: anything we place on our skins will be absorbed. Additionally, face paints are often placed near the child's mouth which leads to the paints being ingested. Children, due to their small size and fact that they are still developing are especially vulnerable to chemicals.

 Among the chemicals found in all face paints tested in 4 tests ( from 2017to 2022: one conducted in the US by Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and one conducted by Health Canada, one conducted by BReast Cancer PArtners and one from EWG) :

• Lead: Yes, the extremely toxic neurotoxin linked to lower IQ, learning and behavior problems is commonly found in face paint. Some face paints contain shocking amount of lead: 15,200 ppm ( no amount of lead is considered safe for a child)

• Cadmium: A hormone disruptor that has been linked to breast, kidney, lung and prostate cancer, has been found in over 30% of face paints tested.

• Chromium: A heavy metal and known skin allergen.

• In the Breast cancer Fund study, Twenty-one of the paints tested positive for at least one of these heavy metal chemicals, and some had as many as four. They also found that the darker the paint, the higher the concentration of heavy metals

• Fragrance: Often a composite of dozens of undisclosed chemicals, ‘fragrance’ usually contains phthalates that are hormone disruptors, among other potentially dangerous chemicals.

• Parabens: These are preservatives that are often added to face paints and cosmetics marketed at children. They are also endocrine disruptors and have been found in breast cancer tissue.

• Barium: A rat poison, has been found at levels 40 times higher than their regulated safety limit in children’s face paint. Barium, if ingested, leads to severe stomach pains.

• Talc: Can be contaminated with asbestos, and then considered a carcinogenic. Talc has also been linked to mesothelioma, inflammation and ovarian cancer and found in Halloween Face Paints

- The law: Face paints are considered cosmetics and under current laws cosmetic products and ingredients, other than color additives, do not need to have FDA approval. So, companies can use virtually any material in cosmetic products, including face paints marketed at children.

WHAT TO DO ?

So this is what I have decided:  when we are at home we will make our own face paints (recipes below).  This becomes a fun sensory activity the kids love and we can do together and I know the paint is 100% safe.

If we go to a birthday party and the kids really want to get their face painted I allow the kids to get their faces painted but I ask the paint not to come close to the mouth and I try to remove the face paint when we get home (ie don’t leave it on to be absorbed by the skin the entire day).  Luckily, this does not happen that often so I find it is a happy medium.  However, if you have very young children or babies and want to paint their faces for a costume - or for everyday fun- I would encourage only using safe nontoxic face paints.   Babies and young children are especially vulnerable to all chemicals.

Tips for Buying Non-toxic face paints

1. Remember labels like 'non-toxic' and 'natural' really mean nothing.  Companies are not required to disclose the ingredients they use in face paints to any governing body so they can - and do- put anything in there (including lead and the chemicals I just mentioned!).  These labels that seem indicative of good ingredients are not certified by anyone either.

2.  Look at the ingredients and look for paints that get their tints/ colors from  food like beets, blueberries etc

3. Studies have found that darkest pigments are the ones to avoid the most,

I like:

 Natural Face Paint Kit

While these are truly non-toxic and safe face paints, making your own face paints at home are surprisingly easy, and require minimal effort and ingredients you probably already have at home

It is actually a fun and easy activity for fun sensory play for babies and children of all ages.

There are various ‘recipes’ you can use (see below).

For tinting you can either purchase non-toxic food dyes or make your own by boiling 1 cup of different hued vegetables and fruits (blueberries - blue, beets - red, onions - yellow etc) or condiments like paprika (yellow) , spirulina (blue) beetroot powder (red) . Black is harder to achieve- you could try to source bamboo charcoal powder for older kids but I have not been able to identify one that I love and would recommend. Sometimes mixing a ton of dark non-toxic food dyes gets you close to black.

DIY FACE PAINT recipe:

Ingredients:

corn starch

water

mineral sunscreen (any you have on hand: Think Baby, Babo, Badger etc The thinker the better) an alternative is to use diaper rash cream

coconut oil

Recipe:

1. ADD 1 TSP OF CORNSTARCH TO 1/2 TSP OF WATER AND MIX WELL

2. ADD 1/2/ TSP OF MINERAL SUNSCREAEN AND BLEND WELL UNTIL YOU CREATE A SMOOTH PASTE

3. IF YOU WANT YOU CAN ADD A PINCH (TINY AMOUNT) OF COCONUT OIL TO MAKE THE FINISH MORE SHINY AND LESS MATTE)

4. THIS CREATES A WHITE FACE PAINT. IF YOU DESIRE COLOR, ADD THE COLORING OF YOUR CHOICE. START WITH VERY LITTLE AND ADD UNTIL YOU ACHIEVE THE DESIRED HUE

For more Safe Halloween options (from costumes, to better candy / trick or treat giveaways to face paint) please check out my Amazon Halloween Ideal List

SOURCES:

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/Face-Paints-Makeup-Toxic-Ingredients.aspx#:~:text=These%20can%20include%20arsenic%2C%20cadmium,caused%20people%20to%20develop%20sensitivities.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/statement-fda-commissioner-scott-gottlieb-md-and-susan-mayne-phd-director-center-food-safety-and

https://www.bcpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Report_Pretty-Scary-2_October_2016.pdf