While I was prepared for these frightful sights on Halloween, the scariest thing I saw this week was at a popular drug store chain.

 

In the next few hours, there are going to be a lot of children going around neighbourhoods with costumes on to be part of the yearly rituals of Halloween.  But hopefully there will not be many that are using makeup found at the supermarket or the local drug store.

The story of a parent caught the eye of this reporter.  It was a parent like most parents that had little time to produce a costume for their children.  They stopped in at a local drug store and picked up a package of face paint plastered with photographs of young kids and when she turned the box around read the instructions that this product is safe for use.  Reading on, she saw the words "not to be used on children under 12".

Is this product safe or not?  If there is a possibility that this makeup could be used for a child under 12, would the instructions on the product be sufficient to stop the parent from using this product. 

When reading further, the products of interest are hard-to-read chemical names like petrolatum and parabens (a known cancer-causing estrogen-mimic).  There are more listed that are considered dangerous chemicals.

So, what is a parent to do?  Firstly, be very vigilant about what is in products that you put on your child today and always.  There are homemade products that are much better.  Secondly, if you don't want makeup on the face, then either go clean or perhaps put on a mask.  For young ones, the best is the former.