Hey Estee: Moms Deserve Safe Products!

Isn’t it great that mothers get one whole calendar day dedicated to them for all their hard work, day and night, throughout the year? Mother's Day is the day to love and thank a mother for all she's done for you or someone you love. Unfortunately, some large cosmetics companies, like Estee Lauder, use this special day to hawk their toxic wares to moms and mom supporters across the country. 

Estee Lauder is offering six different cologne and body care packages for Mother's Day- all of which are very “mom-ish”, and all contain products that score in the higher toxicity range in the Skin Deep database. Several of the items in the Mother’s Day gift sets, like Youth Dew Body Cream scored over 4.0 (5.0 is the highest toxicity rating in Skin Deep).  No one wants to buy Mom a present that contains toxic chemicals, even if it does smell nice!

Estee Lauder says, “Steal her away to the perfect summer day with four luxuries that lift her mood and renew her spirit.”  We say, “Estee, lift our moods and renew our spirits by honoring our health and making safer products!”

Estee Lauder says, “Make her day with the timeless fragrance of cool white flowers and greenery.”  We say, “Make our day and sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics!"

The company’s name appears on its popular fragrances Beautiful and Pure White Linen, and the full Estee Lauder line of cosmetics... but their influence is even broader than that. Did you know that Clinique, MAC, Aveda, Prescriptives and Origins are all Estee Lauder brands? And none of them have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. In fact, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has written and/or met with senior level Estee execs more than a half a dozen times urging them to join with the over 500 companies that have aligned themselves with the goals and values of the Campaign by signing the Compact for Safe Cosmetics! Moms everywhere should shake their fingers at Estee!  
 
Please tell Estee Lauder that mothers deserve safe body care products this Mother’s Day and all year round. To e-mail Estee Lauder, use their contact form, found at http://www.elcompanies.com/footer/contact.asp. Or, give them a call at 1-877-311-3883 (after you hear the automated message, press 4), or in New York at 212-572-4200. We've included a sample script below.  

Sample script:

Dear Estee Lauder,

This Mother’s Day I want to show my mother the love and appreciation I feel for her throughout the year. Mothers work to keep families safe and healthy, and the gifts that we give them on this day should reflect that.

I am concerned that Estee Lauder has not publicly committed to eliminating harmful chemicals from all of its brands and products. And, that Estee Lauder doesn’t even list the ingredients in its products on its website so consumers can make informed purchases.  Mothers and other customers all over the world deserve safe products, free of chemicals that are linked to cancer, birth defects and hormonal disruption.

I encourage the Estee Lauder Companies to be an industry leader: sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a meaningful pledge to eliminate toxic ingredients from your products, for the health and safety of consumers like the mothers I love.

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Now that you've called Estee on their refusal to sign the Compact, we've got some great ideas to help you pamper your mom this Mother's Day.

Get the Mother's Day Home Spa Kit »