For many of the loyal customers of 100% Pure, the entire reason the brand took off in the first place was an unwavering dedication to ingredients that were “safe” and “100% pure”. The name itself used to reflect the ethos that started the company… but now, the recipes have quietly changed and the message of the brand seems to be falling to the way-side. This re-launch was so quiet that I accidentally purchased not one but two of the new formulas without knowing they’d arrive with titanium dioxide and lake dyes.

More importantly, those purchases were from two separate suppliers and both had the wrong list of ingredients with nothing listed under the fruit pigments. I was excited to get these lipsticks because I am very sensitive to many ingredients. To my surprise when they arrived, there was synthetic lake dyes listed on the packaging. I felt almost like I should have seen it coming. After-all a nice bright red color is rare in natural cosmetics for a reason (the fact that most iron oxides are orangey). But this was not the unicorn lipstick of my dreams, and instead was an irritated morning where I contacted both companies. Both refunded me without question once the photos and UPC were shared and they confirmed the system error.

I felt lied to. Not by the vendors necessarily, but by a brand that tried to build good will off whatever the ‘clean beauty’ movement is supposed to be. Those of us who actually care about what’s in our products seem to be a joke to these companies. Lie. Pander. Build trust and then change the ingredients quietly later to increase the bottom line.

This is more than just lipstick. This is a consumer culture that is dead set on blatantly lying to consumers who are trying to be conscious of what they put on their skin and bodies. Regulation needs to step in and ensure that formula changes are announced more ethically, and that brands cannot advertise as “clean” or “natural” without explaining these terms explicitly.