Halloween Face Paint Can Be Toxic to Kids: Here’s How to Ditch the Makeup and DIY Instead

Around Halloween time many parents worry about trick-or-treating safety and curfews, sugar crashes, and ruined bedtimes. But here’s something you might not be thinking about, but should be: toxic ingredients in your kids’ face paints and powders.

Studies in recent years have found Halloween face paints that contain heavy metals like lead and cadmium, and powdered makeup marketed to kids that are contaminated with asbestos. Even small exposures to these toxins are dangerous: Lead affects brain development, asbestos is a carcinogen, and cadmium is an endocrine disruptor, which are chemicals that have been linked to certain cancers and other health problems.

It’s a common misconception that if a product you put on your body (or on your kids) is for sale in the U.S., it must be safe. But unlike its oversight of food and drugs, the Food and Drug Administration has very little power to regulate the safety of cosmetic ingredients. The agency surveys products that are already on the market, but it does not approve their safety beforehand. It can put out public notices when it finds something of concern, but it can not mandate product recalls.