When you reach for your favourite mascara at Sephora, you’re probably wondering whether it’ll look more dramatic in “Onyx Rush” or “Blackest Black” – but after Julie Gelfand’s scathing audit on Health Canada, you should probably be wondering whether it’s safe.

In late May, Gelfand – the commissioner of the environment and sustainability – found that Health Canada’s Consumer Product Safety Program “could not fully assure Canadians that its…oversight activities were [protecting] the public” from unsafe cosmetics.

PROBLEMS IN HEALTH CANADA

The following infograph highlights some of the most concerning findings in the commissioner’s report:

Testing

The audit found that the total number of products Health Canada examined in the last decade have fallen dramatically.  

Source: Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development: Report 3: Chemicals in Consumer Products and Cosmetics, pg 23

Misleading and deceiving

Recalls

According to data from Statistics Canada, last year Canada imported $1.7 billion in “Beauty or Makeup Preparations” alone.

Yet the most recently recalled “cosmetic” product was in early December 2014.

E-commerce regulation

CONSEQUENCES TO HEALTH AND SAFETY

These “information gaps” mask potential health threats in the products that are coming into the most intimate contact with Canadians.

Dr. Ariel Burns, a dermatologist associated with Dalhousie University, said that this could be problematic, especially where substances like heavy metals are concerned.

“If you put enough on, you could get systemic absorption and basically get arsenic or mercury poisoning,” said Burns. “This could result in blue/grey skin pigmentation – but also organ failure.”

Gelfand sums up the findings of the audit and why it should matter to Canadians:

RECOMMENDATIONS OR TWEETS?

In response to the commissioners recommendations to better inform Canadians, Health Canada said it would invest in outreach activities through its social media.

While its Twitter account has 143K followers, this is a mere fraction of the 35.16 million Canadians it’s held accountable to, and even fewer for those who buy cosmetics.

SEPHORA SURVEY

To find out if the consumers most affected were informed, I surveyed 20 people walking out of Sephora, a makeup chain.

Not one said they followed Health Canada on social media. In fact, no one even knew which department regulated cosmetic safety.

KNOW YOUR MAKEUP:

If you want to find out more about Health Canada’s latest findings, you can subscribe to Consumer Product Safety News or check out advisories, warnings and recalls.

Or if you’re feeling complacent, you can always follow them on Twitter…

“Usually we just kind of react to things rather than being proactive,” said Brooke Mackenzie, a bohemian blonde who was dangling a black and white Sephora bag from her fingers.

She longingly glanced at the metallic blue package nestled inside the bed of red tissue paper.

“I just came out with a huge eye pallet that I was so excited about – but now I feel embarrassed,” she said sheepishly.

“We just pull the wool over our eyes and don’t think about what we’re putting on our face – but we should.”