Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Oh, the drama. No more POP

It's no secret by now and we all know it. The TKB Pop micas, also know as THE HOLY GRAIL INGREDIENTS for repackagers (I bet all of you have seen the "unique rainbow sets" lots of sellers offer), are a really basic mica that those of us makeup formulators find versatile, handy and really useful when it comes to creating, tweaking and give a color that extra "something" I like. They're easy to use and blend and overall GREAT.

I personally don't use them as my main ingredients on my colors, but as a part of my blend. It makes a big difference not using them though.

Currently I'm only out of one of the Pop Micas, Strawberry Pop, which can be duped mixing Tangerine and Raspberry. But from this month on I'll be starting to replace them since I'm almost out of the rest of Pops.

Some of you have noticed that some of my shades look different now and it's because of this. Even though Strawberry can be duped, it's not exact and the shades containing the duped Strawberry look different now. My listings will be updated with the new ingredient lists as I do that and I'll put here on the blog a list of the reformulated shades so you know what's going on.

TKB Trading discontinued the Pops some time ago. This is the message you can find at their site.


Ok, so they have some replacements, but there is something to keep in mind, and it is the ingredients of them and the fact that they aren't exact dupes, so, the finished product you'll get when you replace the Pop mica from your recipe with one of them won't be the same AND your ingredient list won't be the same.

The Pop mica's ingredient list is the following:

Image taken from the TKB Trading site. 


-Mica, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, tin oxide.

Replacements TKB suggests:

 Images taken from the TKB Trading site.

-TRUE BLUE: Mica, titanium dioxide,  Blue #1 Al Lake dye, hydrogenated polyisobutene, palmitic acid, preservatives.
-TRUE CORAL: Mica, titanium dioxide, Red #40 Al Lake dye, hydrogenated polyisobutene, palmitic acid, preservatives.
-TRUE YELLOW: Mica, titanium dioxide, Yellow #5 Al Lake, hydrogenated polyisobutene, palmitic acid, preservatives.
-TRUE GREEN: Mica, titanium dioxide, Blue #1 Al Lake dye, Yellow #5 Al Lake dye, hydrogenated polyisobutene, palmitic acid, preservatives.
-TRUE RED/ORANGE: Mica, titanium dioxide, Red #7 Ca Lake dye, hydrogenated polyisobutene, palmitic acid, preservatives. THIS SHADE IS NOT SAFE FOR EYE USE.
-AMETHYST: Mica, titanium dioxide, tin oxide.
-PATAGONIAN PURPLE: Mica, titanium dioxide, tin oxide, ferric ferrocyanide. THIS SHADE IS NOT SAFE FOR LIP USE.
-PASSION ORANGE: Mica, titanium dioxide, aluminum oxide.

As you can see, most of these colors contain dyes, preservatives and one of them isn't approved for eye use.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the use of dyes, BUT, it's obvious that if your products contain them you must state it clearly to avoid possible allergic reactions AND you have to state where they can and can not be used. And obviously it's not clever to put a non eye safe product in an eyeshadow, same as it isn't to add a no lip safe mica on a lip product.

We sellers must make it clear for our customers and you, as a customer, please make sure you know what's in the product you buy. This should apply for everything else, but, if you can't find an ingredient list on a shop, ask the seller first. If you still have doubts, research the ingredients. If a seller refuses to tell you what's in their product, skip them. Don't put your health at risk.

I think we all know by now what can happen if you use a product that's not safe for the eye area. I'm not going to go into dramas here, but there is a lot of info out there and a lot of blogs addressing these issues.

I don't want anyone to panic now and think mineral makeup is dangerous, it's not my intention at all. I just want you to understand that you have to know what you put on your skin, and people like me, who develops the products you're going to use, need to be open about this and the ingredients we use and have to be transparent and provide the information you need to make sure you feel safe and confident using our products.

If you have any questions or doubts, don't hesitate to ask me, I will try to make everything clear and solve any doubts you may have. You can contact me via commenting on my blog, via Twitter @lostmakeupland or email me directly at lostinmakeupland@gmail.com.

Now I'd like to ask you, how do you feel about the situation? Are you going to look up more closely what you're buying now? Do you trust sellers on this topic? Do you think my approach on this is adequate?

I think we all have our word on this, and I'd love to hear yours.

11 comments:

Jade Carver said...

I think what you've done is really lovely. You've been clear, concise and honest.

To be blunt: I have my favourite make-up companies which I buy from regularly and it takes a LOT to get me to try someplace new. Let's face it, I'm a student and I can't afford to be throwing money away on something which is unsafe or poor quality.

I know a few make-up companies and bloggers have complained about "how much" transparency is required by customers nowadays, of places they buy from (esp. online) but as you've shown with this post, and as Melissa from Morgana showed with her lipstick recall, it's NOT THAT HARD to do the right thing.

I'm curious to see how the Pops! discontinuation will affect repackagers, but I'm sad to see it impact on honest, true indie make-up mavens such as yourself.

Thank you very much for this post.

Caitie said...

I won't use anything with dye in it, so this is a little worrisome to me. Just a personal choice, nothing wrong with using dye of course, so long as ingredients are disclosed. I just hope all sellers will be proactive in updating their ingredients list immediately on any changes.

I've also heard that The Conservatorie's Happy Hour colours are similar to the pops...I think they're all dye free and eye and lip safe (except for the blue which has ferric ferrocyanide, so not lip safe)

Phyrra said...

I think you've written a good post. I know I don't want to put my eyes at risk.

Though, I've heard the pops aren't fully discontinued, that they're just not being carried by TKB.

Skulda said...

I know Darling Girl posted some dupes for POP micas, but since I'm not a chemist, I can't say.

http://darlinggirlcosmetics.blogspot.com/2011/03/replacements-for-pop-micas.html

Unknown said...

Excellent post! I wish you luck finding a replacement. I'm honestly surprised, from a supplier's point of view, that they would discontinue something so popular.

Lost in Makeupland said...

@Jade: Thanks for your insight :) I feel like you, it's very rare for me to invest on a company I know nothing about, and I tend to buy from a few ones only even though I'm always open to try new stuff.

@Naturalla Beauty: I've heard about The Conservatorie's Happy Hour, but I can't access their site AND I've been told of some shady business on their part and don't trust them so I'd skip it anyway. I'll post tomorrow more on the suppliers topic, but think I'll stick with Coastal Scents, their mica's look very similar to the pops and have the same ingredients which I find great.

@Phyrra: Thanks! I also read something about them just not being carried by TKB, but haven't been able to find them anywhere else on the net. Actually I only found them sold by approx $4 for a 3-5 gram baggie. I'm almost surely going to change to Coastal Scents for these colors since they look like almost exact replacements and have the same ingredients :D

@Skulda: Thanks for the link! I actually can't access the Conservatorie page, plus I've heard things about them I don't like. Coastal Scents have dupes too, I'll stick to that I guess ;)

@Dark Heart Designs: Thank you! It's weird since they're a staple for every make up creator (and especially for repackagers). BTW, I'd love to know more about the Project: Safe Indie, could you email me about it? My email is lostinmakeupland@gmail.com I'd love to contribute if possible :D

Unknown said...

Certainly! I'll do so right now.

Anonymous said...

Just an update on the Conservatorie and their past "shady business" dealings. They have undergone new (and professional) owners and management in the past couple of years and I think those issues are totally resolved. The Happy Hour colors I received are amazingly bright and beautiful and shipping was fast. You might want to try them now that things have changed. I am glad i did.

Anonymous said...

P.S. I forgot to mention in my post above that you can still get Pop Micas (for now) here
http://www.aussiesoapsupplies.com.au/

Anonymous said...

There's a new post about The Conservatorie on http://glittersniffercomplaints.blogspot.com/

See if you still want to buy from there after reading about their ingredient listings being wrong. Oh, and they didn't bother to make a statement about it either. They just snuck in the revised ingredient listings.

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