July 2, 2008: Last week we saw what we are up against with the cosmetics industry! Did you hear what happened in Sacramento? Industry lobbyists lined the halls of the California legislature to complain that they can’t get lead out of lipstick. All the big companies were there – Estee Lauder flew in a vice president, and Johnson & Johnson’s (which doesn’t even make lipstick) lobbied to kill the bill that would have limited lead in lipstick to the lowest possible level.The companies say it’s impossible. They can’t get lead out of lipstick. But don’t worry, they say, it’s just a little bit of lead in the lipstick, and lead is mostly a problem only for children (and where do they think children come from?).

Well, we worry. Because we know that lead is highly toxic to the brain even in tiny doses. Lead builds up in our bodies and it stays in our bodies for a long time, so it can endanger our future children even if we aren’t pregnant now. And more than worried, we’re mad, because lipstick doesn’t need to contain lead!

How do I know this? Because I am holding in my hand a $1.99 tube of Wet N Wild lipstick that has no lead in it. And here I have an $8.50 Revlon lipstick in a lovely shade of red — with no lead.

Here is an $8.50 tube of L’Oreal Colour Riche lipstick with the highest lead content found in recent product tests conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. And here’s a fancy tube of lead-containing lipstick made by Dior Addict that sells for $24.50 — and let’s not forget that the actual lipstick part of the product costs the company about 15 cents!

So yes we think the beauty industry can do better. Stay tuned for round two in the lead-in-lipstick legislative battle, coming soon.

And a B.S. radar alert: The beauty industry may be under the gun with toxic chemical controversies, but they have plenty of mind-warping weapons in their arsenal. The leaded lipstick scandal got huge press — from Good Morning America to the Washington Post — but all the beauty industry has to do to get our attention is buy a prime time series.

If you watch Lipstick Jungle (I admit to being a fan even though I may be the only one): keep an eye out for sneaky Maybelline NY product placements in the show, faux make-up tips with experts (so you, too, can look like Nico Riley!) and the annoying barrage of lip-plumping ads (6% plumper guaranteed!) — all sponsored by L’Oreal, the manufacturer that makes the most lead-contaminated lipstick of all. It really is a jungle out there! … Stacy Malkan