As the world prepares to celebrate Valentine’s Day, love is definitely in the air. Many of us are either rushing to the cosmetics aisle to pick up tempting new liquid lipsticks, or the candy aisle to score some chocolates for an always perfect gift.
This got the Forever Analytical team to thinking. Do these Valentine’s favorites contain any ingredients you should know about. It’s an obvious question for us; we’re in the business of screening products for PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), the “forever chemicals” that can be found in virtually everywhere—fast food packaging, baby products, non-stick cookware, and even feminine hygiene products.
Why is this important to you when your mind is on romance? Because repeated exposure to products with PFAS increase the risk of certain types of cancer, fertility issues, immune disorders, and other serious health threats. Scary stuff!
We decided to randomly screen nine top liquid lipstick products and 12 favorite chocolate brands for PFAS and share what we found.
First Up, Liquid Lipsticks
Here is some important background for you. PFAS are used in liquid lipsticks to provide water resistance, enhance product, texture, and improve durability so the color lasts longer on lips. But liquid lipsticks don’t just stick on the lips. The ingredients can be absorbed by the skin and/or accidently ingested by the wearer every time the lips are licked. If PFAS are present, it is no bueno with respect to PFAS exposure risk.
How did we choose what to test? We selected liquid lipstick and tint products that used phrases in their names or on packaging like: “up to 24-hour wear,” “forever color,” “long-lasting,” “moisture proof,” “super stay,” and “outlasts other brands.” This type of performance can often be attributed to PFAS.
All of the liquid lipstick and tint products were screened using Forever Analytical’s patented technology that uses particle induced gamma ray emission (PIGE) spectroscopy to detect total fluorine (and the presence of PFAS). Of these nine lipstick products , five were determined to contain very high levels of PFAS, including three with fluorine concentrations that were more than ten times over the threshold of 300 parts per million (ppm), a limit used to determine intentional use. On a positive note, this means four products did not contain intentional use of PFAS. Good to know, right? This is a significant change from the original published study in 2021 that showed nine out of ten liquid lipsticks were using PFAS (Whitehead et al. 2021) but our findings suggest that there is still PFAS being used in these products.
Here are the PFAS screening results for liquid lipsticks:
Next Up, Chocolates
Chocolates are definitely a Valentine’s Day fav. The only things most of us worry about is eating the whole box in one sitting. Been there, done that! But as we said, the Forever Analytical team is a curious bunch. We purchased 11 popular brands of chocolates from local stores and online for screening purposes. Mouths watering and hoping for leftovers, we started screening…
Great news! fluorine concentration in Reese’s peanut butter hearts, Ferrero Rondnoir, Mini Milky Ways, and others were all 32 ppm or under. This included variables in how the chocolates were packaged, be it paper cups or plastic wrapper. The only anomaly was Ghirardelli Chocolate, Signature Collection. The top of the heart shaped box tested at 147 ppm of fluorine, which is still very low, but might be some unintentional PFAS in the packaging materials. We tested the packaging from all the chocolates as well and found none of concern.
We, of course, were overjoyed! We can now buy Valentine’s chocolates for our sweeties and eat them ourselves!
Here are the PFAS screening results for Valentine’s chocolates:
The takeaway here is whether it’s lipstick or chocolates, PFAS are everywhere, and you should know exactly where. That’s why Forever Analytical’s mission is to screen everything for fluorine and to share that information. This way, you can make informed decisions about the products you purchase, use and consume, especially when there is risk of PFAS exposure involved.
For more information about Forever Analytical, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn. Learn more about past research into PFAS in consumer products here.