AVON

I remember as a little girl my mom bringing home a package every once in a while. This little package had lots of makeup goodies. Generally there would be a nail polish or two, a lipstick, an eye pencil, some talc powder, and my moms favorite perfum Haiku.

Avon was a great conveinence for my mother who had four kids basically back-to-back. It was a way for her to do her shopping without heading out with the four of us driving her insane. Now at 21, Avon is such a familiar brand to me. It’s a brand that I never once thought of questioning until recently: when I became employeed with Avon as a representative.

I qucikly went online and began reading the ingredients for all the cosmetic products: glycerin, lecithin, urea, zinc stearate, stearic acid and the list went on....

I thought, well there definitely is a plant/synthetic alternative for all of these ingredients, let me give them an email. And to my dissmay Avon generally uses animal derived ingredients because they are the most abundantly found. Moreover, Avon was the first lipstick I encountered that had the ingredient UREA! ARGH! I don’t want an animals pee near my lips!

But here I was, only a day into my new job, already regretting that I signed up for this thing. All my friends and family members were Muslim, so I had to let them know what products were permissible to use. There are a few products that were acceptable to use, but most of them were haram. I told each of my customers which ingredients were haram, and which were halal, and if they accidently chose a haram product I would notify them and remove it from their order. But I think most people became turned off by Avon.

I’m still employeed with Avon for my own personal discounts, but I would advise Muslim Consumers to absolutley avoid all the foundations, lip products, and mascaras. The rest of the makeup you can  either contact the company via phone/email, or look at their online shopping website for thier ingredient list.

Keep in mind that even if a product does not contain any haram ingredients, it is still processed in a factory that uses animal ingredients so cross-contamination can occur. If cross-contamination makes you an easy, it’s better you opt for a vegetable-based brand. 

MAC COSMETICS

Mac Cosmetics, whether you're a makeup artist, a makeup enthusiast, or someone who wears makeup occasionally, you've definitely heard of Mac Cosmetics.

But, to buy or not to buy? Does it contain a nice little piglet or two? Maybe piglet's friend cow is in with him?

Well if you're a Mac lover you can heave a great sigh of relief because Mac ensures its customers that most of their products are plant based. The only ingredients that are animal based in their products are Beeswax, Lanolin, and Carmine.

Beeswax and Lanolin are both permissible for Muslim consumers, but Vegans may want to avoid these ingredients for personal reasons.

Carmine on the other hand is a debatable ingredient. In lip products this ingredient is definitely Haram due to the fact that you will end up consuming the product. On other areas of the face this product is debatable and up to your own discretion.

Unfortunately in every shade of lipstick, the ingredient list only states carmine as being a "May Contain" ingredient (depending on the shade of lipstick). Fortunately, the company will kindly tell you which lipsticks have and do not have carmine in them. I have emailed a number of companies, and I will tell you that Mac is one of the few companies that will tell you if a particular shade of lipstick has carmine. This makes Mac a great company for Muslim consumers. The only downside is that you have to wait for Mac to respond to your inquiry before you can go out and purchase your lipstick, and if you're impatient like me, you're really going to hate having to wait before you buy your desired product.

Just to help some of you sisters out, I have compiled a list of some of the Mac lipsticks/lip liners that DO NOT have carmine. Keep in mind that Mac has a huge assortment of lipstick shades, so if your lip product isn't on the list, make sure to give them a call:

LIPSTICK	Pro Longwear Lipcreme	Lip Pencils	Lip Glass
Brave	Till Tomorrow	Spice	2N
Ruby Woo	Sweet Ever After	Whirl	Lust
Snob	Unlimited	Stone (discontinued)	Just Superb
Girl About Town		Oak	Deelight
Cherish		What Comes Naturally	Loud and Lovely
Kinda Sexy		Entertain Me	Fashion Scoop
Twig		Night Moth	Double Dare
Myth			Boy Bait
Profusion (discontinued)			Floral Abundance
Kraft (discontinued)
Angel
Please Me
Mac Red
Russian Red
Taupe
Honeylove
Velvet Teddy
Morange
Spice is Nice
Verve
Mocha
Retro
Amorous
Del Rio
Rebel
Captive

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