From lead to petroleum to endocrine-disrupting plastics, the chemicals conventional makeup exposes us to seem beyond not worth it for a slightly darker mascara or a brighter shade of lipstick. But the math can look different when you’re about to go on a date with someone you like, or a job interview, or you’re about to be photographed: The product that makes you look the best—and not necessarily the most made-up—is the one you want. On the red carpet, on movie sets, or in magazine shoots, GP has been deeply familiar with this trade-off for her entire career.
But, technology, and a few cutting-edge cosmetic companies, are transforming natural makeup, taking the colors far beyond the dusty roses and neutral browns of the past—and the textures into the realm of the genuinely sheer, the truly shiny, the delicate, and the subtle.
The new makeup line from Juice Beauty—which GP, as Creative Director, was intimately involved in developing—tackles both texture and color issues, delivering conventional makeup quality in formulas that are nontoxic.
Pigment isn’t just the most frustrating element in makeup formulas to do naturally; it’s also the most important in terms of toxicity.
“Artificial fragrances and synthetic dyes are some of the worst offenders—some can cause endocrine disruption, a known link to many types of cancers,”
says Juice Beauty CEO Karen Behnke. Such ingredients are often never tested for cosmetic toxicity at all, she notes: “We don’t believe artificial fragrances and synthetic dyes should be used in personal care products at all: Your skin can absorb what is placed on it.” Behnke points out that over the past several years, several dyes found to be carcinogenic have been banned from food, but the same regulations don’t apply to, say, lipstick (which, like it or not, the wearer does end up consuming).
Synthetic dyes and colors should be avoided completely, agrees Harper, who advises looking hard at ingredient lists. “Synthetic dyes and colors have names on the ingredient list that include FD&C, or D&C, usually with a number and letter following.” The Breast Cancer Research Fund has published numerous studies with top universities on this topic, Behnke notes.
When conventional cosmetics companies don’t resort to chemical dyes, they often use animal ingredients, primarily ground-up insects, for color. (This is a decidedly more natural and less harmful to humans approach, but is unacceptable to most vegetarians, vegans, and animal rights activists for obvious reasons.) If you see “carmine” on a label, that’s ground-up beetles; “cochineal extracts” are also insect-derived, as are “Natural Red 4” and “E120.”
To create what’s called “carbon black”—used in mascara and eyeliner—companies combust heavy-duty petroleum products or coal; used in tires, inks, films, and plastics, carbon black is classified as possibly carcinogenic in humans and is carcinogenic in animals, yet many women expose their eyes to this compound on a near-daily basis.
Years of research yielded new options in plant pigments and minerals, Behnke says, even for carbon black:
To create the line without polymers and film formers, silicones, animal-derived waxes, carbon black, synthetic nylon or rayon microfibers, parabens, triethanolamine, keratin (can be animal-derived), aluminum powders, petroleum glycols, retinal acrylates, cyclopentasiloxanes, and PEGS, the challenge lay in finding the right spectrum of pigments to “hold” within the formula and, Behnke adds, look amazing on the skin. The plant-derived phyto-pigments Juice was able to develop are extracted with carbon dioxide, and avoid the hexane or acetone that are usually required to extract vivid colors.
Re-engineering the formulas has benefits beyond simply being nontoxic, organic, or vegan, says Behnke: “We used coconut alkanes to mimic the slip and feel of silicones, and made pressed powder with grape seed extracts instead of petroleum—not only for the more sustainable manufacturing process but also because it delivers antioxidant, antiaging skincare benefits.”
The goal was always to meet the pigment, luxury, and efficacy of conventional chemical brands, Behnke continues—and it was a process that took five years of experimenting to achieve. Behnke says GP’s intensive involvement was critical: “We could not have produced this collection without Gwyneth’s intensive input over the last 14 months.”
The process began with working sessions analyzing clean formulas and healthful ingredients, then GP gave the team a conventional, chemical-makeup benchmark for every single product she hoped to create. “There were a lot of benefits to juggle,” says Behnke, “but we wanted to meet everyone.” Lab samples and product briefs flew back and forth between LA and San Francisco (where Juice Beauty is based). The team met regularly as the collection took shape and the chemists started meeting and even exceeding the quality of the benchmarks.
As the samples proliferated, GP tested them out with her makeup artists at red-carpet events, among them Leslie Lopez, Kira Nasrat, and Georgie Eisdell. She also tested them with friends (see the lip glosses named after some of them) and the team at Goop. “It was a labor of love,” says Behnke. The result, GP says, is makeup she loves: “It’s beautiful, and it’s bright, and it’s clean. I use it every day for a supernatural look, and when I go out, I whip out the dramatic lip colors and the black eyeliner. You have to try it to believe it—the proof is in the makeup bag and on your face.”