Cosmetics and beauty apps continue to flood the market. Below is a list of the latest finds.

Beauty Calls – $0.99 (via Laser Beauty Cosmetics): Health and beauty tips, beauty consultation, home recipes and coupons.
TotalBeauty.com – Free: Over 45,000 beauty product reviews and ratings ranging from mass to prestige.

Cosmetifique – $0.99 (via Laser Beauty Cosmetics): A database of cosmetics ingredients that allows customers to search INCI names and provides a rating for each ingredient: great, good or bad.

Cruelty-Free – free (via Eco Salon): Searchable database of what companies are cruelty-free (beauty,household and personal care).

Haircaster – $0.99 (via Geek Sugar):  Uses location to find out the local weather and then analyzes how the humidity and temperature will affect hair.

Hair Make Over – $1.99 (via Laser Beauty Cosmetics): Offers over 250 hair styles to try virtually.

iPerfumer – Free: Personal fragrance consultant created by the fragrance house Givaudan. This App keeps track of the kind of fragrances you like and helps you choose new ones.

MyUVAlert – free (via Cosmetics Design): Provides sun protection information on the go and customreapplication reminders, local UV index forecasts, coupons, tips and more. 

Opi – Free: Browse over 200 Opi shades and select nail colors (according to skin tone).

Pretty Nails - $0.99 (via Geek Sugar):  GPS based searches on Google Maps for nail and manicure salon closest to you. 

More on Cosmetics & Beauty Apps: Cosmetics and Beauty apps from last year.

Sources: Laser Beauty Cosmetics, Geek Sugar, Cosmetics Design, EcoSalon.

Cosmetic Design Europe Excerpt:

Japan and the US account for 85 per cent of the global CoQ10 market but Green said the ingredient has good prospects for geographic expansion. Europe is the likely next stop for CoQ10 and it recently received a boost when Belgium approved the ingredient for sale in the country. However, the antioxidant is unlikely to find its way into beautifying marshmallows which remain particular to the Japanese market.

Insight by Leah
As demand increases, organic/natural preservatives are becoming more readily available, but still at very high costs. If the costs are still high, I wonder what preservative systems organic/natural mass brands are currently using to preserve products while still making a margin?

Insight by Andrea
I was extremely surprised to find food grade parabens in several California Baby products (complete ingredients lists are available at Drugstore.com but not fully disclosed on their website). Click on the image below to find out the information. Once on the site, click on the ingredient’s tab. Always beware of preservative systems that won’t disclose all ingredients.

Following is the current info on the California Baby’s website regarding preservatives and the use of parabens.  

Why does California Baby use preservatives?

Cosmetics are subject to contamination and growth of bacteria, mold and other microorganisms and children regularly have cuts, scrapes and put all sorts of things in their mouths. So we created a broad-spectrum preservative system to help ensure the integrity of California Baby® products with formulas tailored to the needs of each product. We use higher than average concentrations of antioxidants & essential oils, which help to preserve our products. California Baby feels that preservatives are a very necessary part of a personal care product since they are expected to have a long shelf life—unlike bread or muffins. Our motto is ‘skin care should be preserved, but not food.’ Skin care is not food (although ours smell yummy!).

We utilize a preservative called polyaminopropyl biguanide (by-GWAN-ide)—an extremely gentle, NON-INVASIVE, non-formaldehyde, non-paraben preservative. The molecular size is too large to migrate into the skin, penetrate to the dermis or reach the blood stream. The ingredients that comprise our preservative system are gentle, yet effective. So gentle, that they can be found in ocular (contact lens) solutions that are put directly into the eye!

Note: In March 2009, we began using capryloyl glycine and undecylenoyl glycine, which is an amino acid and not strictly classified as a preservative but as an antioxidant. Many companies that claim to be preservative free utilize this type of system. We feel one should be very careful of companies that claim to be preservative free as it is either stretching the truth or, we feel, undesirable to use an unpreserved product.

Thoughts? Comments? Let us know!

Shared by Andrea

Interesting post! There is so much talk about sea salt. Learn about the different salts used in formulations. Posted on Twitter by @bathbodysupply.