WHAT MAKES IT HARAM OR HALAL?

How do I evaluate products and determine them as permissible or impermissible (i.e. halal or haram)? Well I look for a number of ingredients and have different rules in accordance with a specific ingredient:

CARMINE

This is the ingredient made from crushed beetles to give that beautiful red pigment in many cosmetic products including lipsticks, eye shadows, and glosses. Carmine has various names including cochineal, E120(in food), and CI 75470. Insects in Islam cannot be consumed, and the average women will definitely consume some product off her lips. So if you got carmine in your lipstick, girl you gotta throw that lipstick in the trash! But wait; there is a wee problem here. Carmine usually varies from shade to shade, and most companies will not tell you which lipstick has carmine and which doesn’t; therefore carmine will always be one of those “may contain” ingredients. Well, there is a general Islamic rule that things are assumed pure unless proven otherwise. [1] So if you’ve exhausted your efforts in finding the exact ingredients but can’t, then from the rule I would assume you can continue using that product (but that is up to you).

 Personally, I rather not support companies that are too lazy to give me a proper ingredient list. Some companies that don’t use carmine and have some great lipsticks are Yves Rocher (all products) and Urban Decay (some products). MAC , NYX and JOE fresh are three companies that will tell you specifically which shade will have carmine and which won’t. MAC use to be the fastest at getting back to me but lately their taking FOREVERRRRRRRRRRR.

ALCOHOL

Ethyl Alcohol is Haram girl!, Cetyl Alcohol and Cetearyl Alcohol are Halal.[2]

ANIMALS

It’s common knowledge that pork is Haram, and makeup ingredients that have pig derived ingredients are definitely Haram, but what most Muslims consumers don’t know that even the derivates of an animal which has not been slaughtered in accordance with Shariah is Haram. Here is a list of common ingredients that are usually derived from an animal source unless the company tells you otherwise: glycerine, stearic acid, glycerol stearate, urea, lecithin, and collagen.

But OH lawwwwwwwwwwd Have Mercy. Those are just the ingredients I have commonly seen, PETA has a list of other animal ingredients (not all of which are Haram), plus each common animal ingredient has some next scientific name (e.g. urea, is also called Carbamide).

Best thing to do would be to opt for brands that use no animal-derived ingredients at all, or are halal certified. However these products are not easily accessible to everyone. The next option would be to email the company a general inquiry of that specific product: “Does blank lipstick have any animal derived ingredients, if yes, from which animal and what is the name of that ingredient”.

Yes it is annoying, yes it is time-consuming, but remember that these impure ingredients will invalidate your wudu, and thus invalidate your prayer. What could be more important than your daily prayers?!?!? NOTHING!

ANIMAL CRUELTY

Another criteria which most Muslim Consumers fail to acknowledge is whether a product has been tested on animals. For the longest time I thought “Animal testing is okay, I mean we use animals for all that scientific shiznit and I’ve never heard an Imam complaining about that”. But here’s the rule: “Animal testing is permitted when it fulfills genuine needs that cannot otherwise be reasonably fulfilled. When it is permitted, it should be kept to the extent of the need, and all reasonable means must be taken to avoid undue pain or ill-treatment of the animals.”[3] Animal testing in the name of cosmetics is completely unethical and inhumane. Moreover, many companies are making incredible products without animal testing; hence, there are other methods to test cosmetics without the ill-treatment of animals. Does that mean you throw out all your old animal-tested makeup? If you want, but if you decide to keep it then don’t recommend it to other consumers, and don’t support that company in the future by buying more of their products.

One of my biggest weakness are those “makeup-guru” videos on Youtube who are all up in yo face with “I hate animal testing!- Oh but check out this new Maybelline fit foundation, It’s freaking awesome!”.  Makeup is such a big weakness for me, if I hear it’s good I wanna go out and buy it. So now I just avoid watching videos that review, and use animal tested makeup.  And maybe if you have a makeup weakness like me, you could do the same J!

I guess this completes my VERY long post on how I evaluate makeup. This is one page you may want to bookmark for future reference of share with fellow Muslims sisters at school, home, or the mosque.

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[1] http://spa.qibla.com/issue_view.asp?HD=3&ID=8587&CATE=406

[2] http://www.albalagh.net/letters/synthetic_alcohols.shtml

[3] http://spa.qibla.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=5017&CATE=177