Making Lip Gloss that's OK for Guaifenesin Protocol

 Here's what I do for my own, salicylate-free lip gloss. 

I first got into making cosmetics as an offshoot of my color theory studies. I was initially interested in making customized makeup foundation based on colorimeter readings of the subject's skin tone.  I see that Sephora now has something similar using a Pantone colorimeter which yields suggested matching Sephora foundation brands. I never did get around to making that foundation! But I did eventually end up making my own lip color. 

When I went on the guaifenesin protocol for fibromyalgia, I needed to change my cosmetics to eliminate topical salicylates. Salicylate molecules in castor oil, a common lipstick ingredient, block the receptor sites in the kidney for my medication, rendering it ineffective. 

Being particular about colour, it is great fun for me to mix my own lip colours.  The best looking ones, in my opinion, are when I get to a similar shade or slight offshoot from my own lip color. Although occassionally I enjoy a bright red or some other divergent color. 

So I made a range of lip glosses from cosmetic grade base pigments of red number 7 D&C, semi White Mica, Titanium Dioxide, golden mica, magenta mica, iron oxide brown, yellow no. 5 FD&C (lake), and red mica. I mix pigments into a base of petroleum jelly. With some pigments, a little goes a long way. I store my lip glosses in lidded containers because in very hot weather they can melt a bit. I might try a base of Lanolin or other lip balm ingredients in future, but petroleum jelly suits me just fine for now. I Apply it with a lipstick brush. I am calling them lip glosses but they can be made quite opaque with the addition of titanium dioxide.  I got the pigments and micas from makingcosmetics.com

Alternatively one could keep the individual pigments as primaries mixed into the petroleum jelly, and mix colors on the fly as needed. I do this with the magenta and the brown for when I desire to "purplify" or "brown down" one of my pre-mixed lip colors. 

Makeup pigments

I'm on the guaifenesin protocol for fibromyalgia, which has been working quite well for me for the past three years or so. Salicylate molecules block the effectiveness of the medication, so we have to watch what what we put on our skin, as salicylates are readily absorbed.

The only makeup item that proved especially problematic to buy locally was lipstick. Mail-order companies like Andrea Rose make a castor-oil free lipstick.  Castor oil is a a major ingredient in lipstick, but contains salicylates.

I decided to make my own lip glosses, so I ordered a bunch of mineral pigments and I mix the colors I want with petroleum jelly. Works well for me.  I also liked receiving my mineral pigments in the mail, it brought me back to the days when we looked at such things in geology school. *sigh*

My learnings: one, all makeup is basically pigments in a medium. It always was "mineral" makeup! Two, if you want botanicals in your makeup, you have to add preservatives or the makeup will get moldy very quickly.  It seems a bit ironic to me that to have the benefit of the botanicals you have to add the preservative. Actually I have no strong opinion on preservatives, I know that some folks are dead-set against them; I haven't looked into the topic for myself.

I know this is a bit of a rabbit trail on the topic of color in clothing, but it's been a while since I blogged, and my lip gloss supply was diminished. So here I write about it.