Lipstick ingredients may vary widely from manufacturer to manufacturer, but most tend to have common elements. They all want to perform the same job, and that's to make your lips as pretty as possible.
Harmful Lipstick?

Perhaps you're wondering what you put on your precious lips every time you apply lip color, especially after a slew of reports late in 2007 that revealed lead is in many of the most popular lipstick brands. Although women don't usually make an effort to eat their lipstick, any time you lick your lips, eat or drink anything, trace amounts of lip color do get ingested. Even though the lead was found in trace amounts in most cases, for anyone concerned about taking in harmful chemicals, this was a wake-up call to the makeup industry and to consumers, especially when you hear that reportedly, we consume approximately four pounds of lipstick in our lives!

Typical Lipstick Ingredients

While the ratio of ingredients may not be uniform, you'll typically find the following ingredients in most lipsticks:

Wax: Whether it's beeswax, candelilla wax, or camauba wax, this is the ingredient that allows the mixture to take that recognizable lipstick shape. Wax enables the lipstick to be formed into a tube.
Oil: Mineral, lanolin, castor or vegetable oil are added to the wax. These first two ingredients make up the majority of your lipstick.
Preservatives and antioxidants: This keeps your lipstick fresh, safe and prevents it from going bad.
Pigment: This is, of course, the color, which varies widely. Some women love pink; others love red or peach. There are so many different colors of lipstick that most women have several tubes at their disposal.
Fragrance: This ingredient is usually only present in small amounts and should smell pleasant.
The proportions and formulations are what give each lipstick its own properties. The way lipstick ingredients are mixed and how each is used can make for a matte or creamier combination.

Natural Ingredients

Just think: thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians applied makeup like pros, but there were no shops or businesses around. They made their own cosmetics from natural ingredients.

If you love your makeup, but like natural or organic brands, there are plenty of offerings for you. Many of these companies take care to list the ingredients they put into their products. You don't have to mix your own products at home, unless you like experimenting; there are well-known companies who offer more natural cosmetics so you don't have to wonder if your lipstick ingredients are safe.

Aubrey Organics - This hair, skin and body care company includes a helpful glossary at their Web site to let the buyer know what they'll find in various products. They carry a line of naturally beautiful lip colors in shades of red, pink and mocha at affordable prices.
All Natural Cosmetics - Lipstick ingredients are clearly listed at this site, as well as cosmetic codes such as FF for "fragrance free" and GF for "gluten free," if these are any of your concerns. You'll find a short list of ingredients such as shea butter, jojoba oil, castor oil, mica and vitamin E in their lipsticks.
Natural Solutions - This is another site that lists exactly what goes into the cosmetics they offer, which is great for the buyer who prefers products as natural as possible.
Keep in mind that natural cosmetics sometimes contain trace amounts of harmful chemicals as well. Lead is, after all, something you find in nature. However, if being able to recognize and pronounce the ingredients in a product is important to you, buying natural is one way to ensure that.

Have Fun with It

Whether you like drugstore brands or prefer to shop for cosmetics only in department stores, lipstick ingredients will be remarkably similar. So if you're a fire engine red kind of girl or a more natural, pale pink lady, the basic ingredients will still get you what you want: that perfect pout. .