Bismuth, bismuth oxychloride, biron, or any of its other known synonyms has quite a following by consumers as well as manufacturer’s in the cosmetic industry. 

Bismuth is a white crystalline brittle heavy metal that can have a pink tint and sharp edges which is where it acquires it’s reflective properties.  Bismuth on The Periodic Table of Elements is Bi and early in its history bismuth was often mistaken for other heavy metals including lead and tin though these have since been refuted.   Read more…

We receive a generous portion of emails daily regarding why Bismuth Oxychloride, Biron, and other synonyms for bismuth as a mineral makeup ingredient are bad for the skin.

For those of you that are new to RAESIN IMAGES Natural Cosmetics and our mineral makeup blog, we would like to let you know that we have 2 Cosmetic Chemists on our staff.  One full time cosmetic chemist, that would be Rae Kat Switzer our owner, and one that we consult with if we have questions that we want verification or references to mineral makeup cosmetic formula’s etc.

Let us get down to the nitty-gritty here of why some consumers need bismuth free mineral makeup foundations, blush, and/or mineral eye shadows.

Bismuth in mineral makeup brand products first made a debut in bare minerals, also known as I.d. bare minerals, bare escentuals minerals.

Other mineral makeup cosmetic brands of course use bismuth in their makeup products not just the above company so make sure you read mineral makeup ingredient labels and if in question of INCI’s ask the makeup company your considering trying products from whom their bulk manufacturing company is.  There are unethical companies out there that may finagle their way out of answering if they are embarrassed they don’t make their own mineral makeup, or they may claim they do make their own, but less than 3% of mineral makeup brands worldwide factually make any of their products. (We’ll get to real private label mineral makeup companies at a later posting so you can verify makeup brand companies yourself so you’re not wasting a lot of money on samples etc.)

From a physician’s stance, Dr. Dave our on call Derm (see web md) says that bismuth in general offers good and bad effects, dependent upon individual skin types and what the consumer wearing the mineral makeup brand with bismuth is expecting out of the product.

He offers that bismuth in mineral foundation may carry some anti-inflammatory properties; though no mineral makeup cosmetic brand company or manufacturing company has ever done clinical studies to prove this.  Bismuth, Biron and other synonyms of same ingredient have sheen so offer a light glow as some call it to the skin.  On this same note, the main color of bismuth is not white, but black.  This is why if you take most mineral foundation makeup products containing bismuth in their first 4 ingredients you will find that by rubbing it on the back of your hand, it will start to get very shiny and turn a black/grey hue.  This rubbing will dry out the back of your hand surface so make sure you wash well afterwards and use a nice lotion to bring back oils.

Mineral makeup foundation with large amounts of bismuth, first to fourth ingredient can also be damaging to the skin since the particle size and makeup of bismuth itself is a earth element substrate with jagged edges.  The jagged edges of bismuth can rip and tear skins delicate surface and adjoining dermal layers, thus allowing for bacteria to enter the skin, causing cystic acne lesions, staph infections, and other problems that will lead to you seeing your dermatologist for help to clear up the infections.  Around 60% of users from recent poles using mineral makeup with bismuth and mineral makeup without bismuth found their skin to have some adverse reaction that they didn’t find with mineral foundation makeup without bismuth or mica. (Mica can cause the same effect on skin when used in mineral foundation)

Bismuth As A Mineral Makeup Foundation Ingredient Overview:

·         Can accentuates lines and wrinkles

·         Can be drying to the skin causing skin to look aged

·         Can cause rosacea for some users

·         Can cause rosacea prone skin to have flare ups

·         Can cause cystic acne for some users

·         Can cause acne by clogging pores

·         Can cause bacteria to enter skin’s lower dermal layers

·         Shiny when applied without a setting or veil over

·         Very ashy undertones since black is the main element color

·         Can cause other skin allergies and flare ups

The choice of using a bismuth or biron mineral makeup foundation product will be trial and error for the wearer.

Remember that with any cosmetic, makeup, or skin care product it can take up to three weeks or longer for skin allergens or reactions to show up.

We suggest to never trying more than 1 new product on your skin at a time.  Most consumers do find their skin shows problems within the first 72 hours of using new products.  Except anti-aging skin care products they usually don’t have visible long term signs for 6 weeks to three months.  We’ll have reviews and information on natural and other brand anti-aging skin care products also.

Please remember that this review is for the consumer to have hands on knowledge and take time to do more research themselves for facts not hype on any makeup, mineral makeup or skin care product and its ingredients.

RAESIN IMAGES – Colour ID Minerals Offers All Products Bismuth Free Mineral Makeup.  At no time do we use bismuth in any of our products.

EpiDermalogy Labs, LLC – 2009