Lavender Oil and Spearmint in Origins Stay Tuned Foundation...Good or Bad?

As you all know, I watch tons of youtube videos from well known makeup artists around the world to learn all of the tips and tricks I share with you.  This morning I was watching a video by Goss Makeup Artist about the five worst high end foundations (FAIL! WORST HIGH END FOUNDATIONS!) and the second foundation he talked about was Origins Stay Tuned foundation.  This is the foundation that made me change from powder to liquid and I swear by it, so once I heard him bashing it (which is totally his own opinion and I respect that) I decided to do a little research myself to see what I could come up with.  Goss claims that the reason he doesn't like this foundation is because it contains lavender oil and spearmint which are known skin irritants.  I had just finished putting on a brand new bottle of my Stay Tuned and I wanted to make sure I wasn't damaging my skin, and selling a bad product to other people while I'm at work.

The following on lavender oil is from an article (here) by Robert Tisserand, an esteemed collegue in the aromatherapy industry and he is recognized as a leader and world-expert in aromatherapy.  He has developed personal care products, and founded the Tisserand Institute setting new standards for vocational aromatherapy education.

Lavender Oil: Pros and Cons
Pros

• it can help with wound healing
• anti-allergetic
• reduces redness during healing
• fights and prevents MRSA
• moderately active against Propionibacterium acnes, one of the principle bacteria involved in acne
• moderately active against the two principle fungi that cause skin problems, such as athletes foot and ringworm
• burn remedy
• soothes bee stings
•  Regular use of lavender oil in skin preparations could suppress the aging effects of sunlight on the skin, according to a Japanese study
• loaded with antioxidants

Cons

• only one report of photo-allergy to lavender oil ever, and photo-allergy to essential oils is so rare that it can be discounted as a risk
• there are two major constituents in lavender oil that can oxidize overtime and form hydroperoxides, however this takes a period of months to years for this to happen, which is why it is important to discard old makeup
• enhanced oxidation of lavender oil can cause increased irritancy to skin, but lavender oil is not a pro-oxident 
• research showed that components of lavender could cause topical skin cell death...now this sounds awful and makes me not want to use it.  However, this research was done on isolated in vitro cells in a petri dish, so we cannot assume that this actually occurs on living skin cells.  It is only a suggestion of a possible affect, and living human skin cells are a matrix of different layers and cells that would act very differently when working together, as opposed to apart from one another.

Lavender oil allergies are possible, but very rare.  It is one of the most widely known and used essential oils because it is so rare to be allergic to.  Skin allergies and skin irritants are very different and should not be used interchangeably.


As far as spearmint goes, I couldn't find any articles claiming that any kind of mint was bad for the skin.  Actually the very first article that popped up on Google when I searched for "how is spearmint bad for the skin" was How to Improve Your Skin with Mint.  I thought that was kind of funny.

So, overall I still believe in my Stay Tuned foundation and I intend on notifying Goss on my research findings and see what he says.  Maybe I can get a real pro's opinion on some products and more knowledge on why he doesn't like these two products.  As always, thank you for reading and leave comments and messages with questions/comments/concerns and what you would like me to post next!