20 lipstick brands positive for lead, arsenic – FDA

MANILA, Philippines - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday advised the public that 20 brands of lipstick being sold in the market have tested positive for lead or arsenic.

In an advisory, FDA director general Kenneth Hartigan-Go said the 20 lipsticks contained “violative levels of lead or arsenic but not mercury.”

The 20 lipsticks are: Baolishi Lipstick # 15 (Gold Case), Baolishi Lipstick # 15 (Yellow Case), Baolishi Lipstick # 20 (Gold Case), Baolishi Lipstick # 20 (Green Case), Baolishi Lipstick # 20 (Red Case), Baolishi Lipstick # 20 (Yellow Case), Baolishi Lipstick # 25, Baolishi Lipstick # 33, Kiss Beauty # 7, Kiss Beauty # 8 (Pink Case), Miss Beauty lipstick # 07, Monaliza Lipstick # 20 (Gold Case), Monaliza lipstick # 20 (with cartoon casing), Monaliza Series Lipstick # 20 (Gold Case), Monaliza Series Lipstick # 20 (Pink Case), Monaliza Series Lipstick # 5, Baolishi Lipstick # 20 (Gold Case), Kiss Beauty # 20, Chanleevi # 04, and Kiss Beauty # 8.

Go said these products are part of the 36 lipstick samples submitted last February to the FDA by a non-government organization, which claimed that the products contained prohibitive levels of lead, arsenic or mercury when tested by its own X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments.

All of the 36 products were tested by the FDA Cosmetic Laboratory using the allowable limits set by the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive (ACD) for lead (20 ppm), arsenic (5 ppm) and mercury (1 ppm) in cosmetic products.