Ready for a rant? We all know marketers do plenty of things to walk the fine line between the truth and what sells – and makeup is one of the most guilty product categories. (Who hasn’t gotten a little pissed at a clearly Photoshopped mascara ad? Seriously, how is that not literally the definition of “false advertising”?!) One seemingly innocent category – the use of the term “hypoallergenic” in cosmetic packaging and marketing materials.

Hypoallergenic cosmetics are makeup products that the manufacturers and/or their marketing teams claim produce fewer allergic reactions than other cosmetic products. Tons of makeup products advertise that they’re hypoallergenic, and in a sense, they’re right – all products available on the retail market in the US are FDA-approved and thus have fewer substances in them that will cause your skin to have an allergic reaction than, say, walking through a recently pesticide-spritzed overgrowth of ragweed. The truth is, there’s no real definition of “hypoallergenic” as far as FDA regulations go. The FDA attempted to regulate the term way back in the 70s, but their rules were later declared invalid. If you have sensitive skin, you know that one product can cause a reaction as easily as another.

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