100% Pure -- Or Maybe Not?
A couple of months ago I decided to try a line that I'd previously had just one product's worth of experience with. I was really excited about this line, as there were many products and it seemed like they made something in every category. When the experience did not turn out as I'd hoped, I was reluctant to write this article. I don't really like being negative, and I really shy away from publicly saying anything bad about specific brands -- I usually just refrain from supporting those brands personally. However, after repeated concerns about these products, I can't stay silent any longer. It doesn't feel like it would be honest for my readers.
I ordered the following products from the website:
Fruit Pigmented® Ultra Lengthening Mascara in Dark Chocolate
Fruit Pigmented® Cocoa Butter Matte Lipstick in Cacti
Fruit Pigmented® Lip and Cheek Tint in Cranberry Glow
Fruit Pigmented® Pomegranate Oil Anti-Aging Lipstick in Poppy
When the colors on all three lip products were not good on me, I exchanged them for the following:
Fruit Pigmented® Cocoa Butter Matte Lipstick in Desert Rose
Fruit Pigmented® Cocoa Butter Matte Lipstick in Aubergine
Mango Butter Soap
I had used a coupon on my first order, so my exchange didn't allow me enough store credit dollars to try three new lipsticks, hence the soap switch-out -- I had to find something less expensive than the $30 lipsticks.
In addition, they sent me several packets of Coconut Nourishing Body Cream as samples.
I'll get right to it -- there is NO WAY the labels are correct on these products. The lipsticks, even though not good colors on my brown skin, were ridiculously bright. Plants do NOT make those colors. Not only have I purchased plant makeup that I trust, I've also made my own <article coming soon!>. It just doesn't work like that. The only thing that makes those colors are synthetic ingredients, or maybe metals like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Neither of which were listed as ingredients on these products. I had a feeling that any line of makeup that had that many color options were probably not legit. That part of my brain that wanted to believe though....it kept thinking, "But aren't they a sure thing??? After all, they have a registered trademark for the "Fruit Pigmented" label -- that has to mean something, right?" :-(
The soap was the WORST. I smelled it before I even removed it from the envelope. Weird -- products without synthetic ingredients can smell strong depending on the essential oils or plants used in them, but not like this. I was still really trying to think positively. Until I took the fabric cover off and realized that the soap was STILL WRAPPED IN PLASTIC. What??? I can smell this thing through plastic wrap and a fabric cover? Okay, I'm still in denial. So I unwrap it entirely and put it in our shower. Two hours later, my daughter comes inside and heads to her room. She says, "Ug, what is that horrible toxic smell??" Um, yeah. She can smell it from the hallway that leads to the bathroom, next to her bedroom. Groan. Over the course of two days the horrible smell fills our home and I finally have to call a hazmat team to take it out. Okay, so I may have just wrapped myself in newspaper and carried it to a public wastebasket. But whatever.
The product I had been most excited about, and what actually prompted me to make the order, was the mascara. According to the ingredients, there were nothing but plants in ALL of these products. No scary stuff. I guess I should have known something was up when the mascara made my lashes look the way they did when I used to wear Maybelline. But I smelled chocolate, so I figured....must be cacao, just like the label says! Everything went fine the first time I wore it. However, the second time I wore it, my eyes watered (okay, so I might have been crying while watching On Your Feet, the stage production of Gloria Estefan's life -- did anyone else out there LOVE her in the 1980s? But I digress...). Bad news. My eyes started to burn, and itch, and it was just like those conventional mascaras I used to wear, all over again. Even after I wiped them clean, my eyes felt like they were on fire. I was *extremely* irate. Not gonna lie. So mad. And even more so when I realized that since I had thought that this was the one decent product of theirs that I'd ordered, I'd kept it and was now past the 45-day return period. Ug. Now I have to throw it out. A $26 mascara.
So, in summary, while I did not take these products to a chemistry lab to have them tested for what is in them, there is no way I will ever believe that the labels on these products are being honest. I would not recommend them to anyone, and I'm pretty disappointed in this company for greenwashing customers. It does help me remember why I'm doing this though. There are honest companies out there and products you can make on your own, so that you know exactly what are in them. Buyer beware!