Last Wednesday, whilst browsing the online front page of *La Vanguardia*, we came across the following headline: «The famous colour-changing lipsticks are toxic to the skin«. The report alleged that, according to the OCU, this type of lipstick does not comply with EU regulations on labelling and ingredients, and that these products contain «toxic substances».”.
Alerted by the headline, we looked into the news story and also the press release issued by the OCU, which included a list of the ingredients in the lipstick in question, and came to the following conclusion: it is true that the lipstick does not comply with EU labelling regulations – furthermore, it misleads consumers about the country of manufacture and does not contain henna and argan oil as advertised on its website – and we are therefore calling for it to be withdrawn until the labelling has been brought up to standard. However, its composition is similar to that of the vast majority of products on the market, and there is no reason why it should be described as ‘toxic’.
Concerned about the impact that this sort of news can sometimes have on the sector, we decided to write a response to the article and send it to *La Vanguardia*’s readers’ ombudsman, Josep Rovirosa, to see if it might be possible to publish some sort of correction. And it seems we’ve been in luck: the newspaper has changed its headline, corrected the part of the text referring to parabens, and has also cited us as a source to refute the claim that this product is toxic, as they had initially stated.
Here at GTF, we very much appreciate the fact that *La Vanguardia* has revised the article, and we would like to extend our special thanks to Josep Rovirosa for taking action on the matter and accepting the proposed changes. We also believe that the new article addresses the issue of lipsticks with greater accuracy. You will find the rebuttal we wrote attached as a .pdf file, and you can now read the rewritten article here: (http://www.lavanguardia.com/de-moda/belleza/facial/20150311/54428899152/los-famosos-pintalabios-que-cambian-de-color-no-cumplen-la-normativa-cosmetica.html)