Could Your Halloween Makeup Be Toxic? (I'm Going to Venture To Say DUH)

When I read yesterday's news that an environmental group is warning that Halloween makeup may be hazardous to your health, my reaction was, really? Didn't we all kind of assume that already?

Glamour reader Lisa (@lanmaltby) Tweeted us this pic of her rad Jem and the Holograms getup last year

I mean, you just walk into one of those pop-up Halloween costume stores and you're nearly rendered unconscious from potent plastic and rubber and aerosol fumes. And all that cheaply made glitter and fake blood and black warpaint in the makeup section doesn't exactly look like it's concocted using gentle ingredients--or even ingredients with any known origin in the natural world.

I just had a flashback to Halloween 2009, when my friend and I dressed as robots. It involved thickly encrusting ourselves with spray-on silver body paint and hairspray. I'd just found out I was pregnant the night before and didn't yet want to tell my friend, and I figured one night of poisonous beauty products couldn't be that bad in the grand scheme of things. But as I stood in the bathroom holding my breath trying not to breathe in the toxic gray mist, I was more than a little concerned that my child would emerge with one extra arm as a result. (Thankfully, she did not. And now I look forward to showing her those Halloween photos! But will I let HER wear the sketchy makeup a few years from now? Hmm. Maybe not.)

Oh the things we'll do for this silly holiday.

Do you plan to be wearing some extra-toxic makeup this weekend and feel it probably won't do much harm? Or does the campy, cheapie Halloween makeup freak you out too much?

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