Please ignore the EWG when they tell you not to use your sunscreen

I've made this point a million times by now, probably. I don't care. It's worth reiterating. The Environmental Working Group is not a reliable source of information about cosmetics safety or science in general. It is a lobbying group that was started by personal injury lawyers. Think about the implications of that for a minute. So when they give you a list of "dangerous" sunscreens to avoid, ignore it. Find a more credible source like, say, the Skin Cancer Foundation.

A quick summary of what the Skin Cancer Foundation says: despite the claims of the EWG, there is no evidence that using sunscreens that contains oxybenzone and retinyl palmitate will harm you. You know what causes a proven, serious risk of cancer? Sun exposure without protection.

You already knew that. Just making sure. So use whatever full spectrum sunscreen works best for you.

If you got a POP Beauty lip gloss in a recent Ipsy bag, you should probably throw it away

There seems to have been some kind of problem with the ingredients used in manufacturing, and people have reported burning and redness after using their gloss. More info here, here, and here. I got one, and I didn't have a reaction to it. I threw it in a drawer somewhere, because I didn't like the color, but I'm going to dig it out and toss it. Not worth keeping around if the company doesn't even know what fucking ingredients were used to make it.

How to tell when beauty "blogs" are just trying to sell you shit (even if it's terrible)

Has anyone checked out xoJane's new spin-off, xoVain? (No links, because I try not to link to things I don't really like, but you've heard about googling, I presume.) I was interested to see what it was like, because, although I'm not a big fan of xoJane, it seems like a tell-it-like-it-is sort of site, and so I thought maybe their beauty blog would be low-bullshit.

Wrong.

I've started using Amazon affiliate links.

So some of the links in my posts might be those. I figured I’m linking there often enough, I might as well. I’m still not going to shill for anyone. I’ll only link you to things I actually personally have tried and like. (For instance, I have a post coming up about products I don’t like, and I do not link to them.)

I will also include a disclaimer at the end of all posts with affiliate links, so you can avoid them if you want. If you don’t want to send that 12 cents my way, it’s cool. No, really. I’m okay with that. I MEAN IT.

Why Jar Packaging is a Waste of Money from Beautiful with Brains

Why Jar Packaging is a Waste of Money from Beautiful with Brains