Cosmetics made from restaurant grease

[snopes]

Comment: A source I consider very reliable tells me that in the restaurant
industry, the waste grease is disposed of in two separate drums, and one
of those is picked up and sold to the cosmetic industry, where it is used
in the manufacturing of makeup. In other words, makeup is made using the
waste byproduct oils from fast-food, etc.

Is this true? And if so, is it across the board, or do only some
companies do this?

[snopes]

Comment: Upon getting ready for school this morning, my 12 year old daughter
informed me that her mascara was made with monkey eyeballs. This prompted
my first visit to your website, where I did not find any info verifying
this claim. Can you comment?

[Esprise Me]

What is your 12-year-old doing with mascara? Especially since she seems to have the mind of a nine-year-old? "Eeew, monkey eyeballs--cool!"

[songs78]

I've read that some restaurants have two different areas for recycling fat. One barrel is for oils used in deep frying. These are recycled for use in bio diesel and the other barrel is for solid fats like pieces of animal fat, grease from pans. These are thrown out, or recycled at a rendering plant. A rendering plant will sell the fat for various uses, one of those uses is in the cosmetic industry.

Here is a PDF disposing grease.

[charlie23]

Generally when cooking oil is recycled for biodiesel it's mixed with Methanol, which produces Glycerol as a co-product. The Glycerol can then be used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
"...one of those is picked up and sold to the cosmetic industry" = probably false
"In other words, makeup is made using the waste byproduct oils from fast-food, etc." = true for some companies.

How is Biodiesel made?

not much luck on "recycling monkey eyeballs" though...

[Skeptic]

Originally Posted by charlie23

Generally when cooking oil is recycled for biodiesel it's mixed with Methanol, which produces Glycerol as a co-product. The Glycerol can then be used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
"...one of those is picked up and sold to the cosmetic industry" = probably false
"In other words, makeup is made using the waste byproduct oils from fast-food, etc." = true for some companies.

How is Biodiesel made?

not much luck on "recycling monkey eyeballs" though...

You got it exactly right. I know a chef who is big into green issues including biodiesel, and they send all their oil off to be used as fuel. Glycerine is a by-product of this process.

[Cactus Wren]

Copy from an Ivory Soap advertisement, c. 1904: "Much of the soap used for cleaning the personal, table and bed linen of otherwise intelligent and particular people is made of "house-grease" and other refuse. Think of it!"

[charlie23]

Originally Posted by Cactus Wren

Copy from an Ivory Soap advertisement, c. 1904: "Much of the soap used for cleaning the personal, table and bed linen of otherwise intelligent and particular people is made of "house-grease" and other refuse. Think of it!"

Most soap back then was homemade. The primary ingredients were lard and lye so yeah, it was made from "house grease". I don't know what they meant by "other refuse" though...

[Lady Neeva]

Well, I've read that the lye for soap making used to be made by soaking hardwood ashes in water... maybe thats the "other refuse" they're referring to?

As to the makeup... no idea, I don't even wear the stuff normally much less know how and with what it's made LOL. I think the last time I wore makeup was when I got married, 12 years ago this May! And even then my older sister needed to apply it for me heh... I'm not the most feminine of ladies I suppose, but hubby doesn't mind.

[Avril]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: Upon getting ready for school this morning, my 12 year old daughter
informed me that her mascara was made with monkey eyeballs. This prompted
my first visit to your website, where I did not find any info verifying
this claim. Can you comment?

When I was 12, my best friend swore up and down mascara was essentially bat droppings. I think we just do this at 12.

Monkey eyeballs would be far too expensive, wouldn't they? Monkeys run into the thousands of dollars.

Avril

[Chloe]

They just use a dash of monkey eyeballs, silly.

[Avril]

I did some google searches and had a thought, though I could access nothing in particular which would confirm it. Could she be confusing ingredients with a testing process? Theoretically, mascara could be tested on monkey eyes, including putting the stuff directly in the monkey's eyes. An unpleasant thought, sure, but then the formula would be made with the aid of monkey eyeballs.

Avril

[snopes]

“No, really!” The Arbonne salesperson assured me. “Our products are all natural. Other major brands of mascara contain bat poop. That’s what gives them that sheen.”

That line just seemed too far-fetched to me. It wasn’t the first time I had heard it, though. In fact, I overheard an Arbonne seller telling someone else the same thing a couple of years ago.

http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news...iewStory=16269

[Altered Statesman]

Ingredients for Arbonne About Face Lash Colour Mascara

Arbonne does not post their complete list of ingredients on their website, nor does the customer service department on the website provide them for consumers who request them.

Ingredients for Arbonne’s About Face Lash Colour: Water Solvent, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Synthetic Beeswax, Stearic Acid, Acrylates/Octylacrylamide Copolymer, Butylene Glycol, Glycol Stearate, Oleic Acid, Panthenol, Ascorbyl Palmitate vitamin C, Tocopheryl Acetate vitamin E, Simethicone, Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Wood Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf Extract, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Triethanolamine, Tetrasodium EDTA, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Phenoxyethanol. May Contain: Titanium Dioxidem, Iron Oxides, Ultramarines.

[Eddylizard]

Considering the price of cosmetics, one would think monkey eyeballs not too outlandish a claim. Heck for that money I wouldn't be surprised if they were made out of unicorn poop.

[Altered Statesman]

From checking up on a few of the basic ingredients, 'cheap' and 'natural' seemed to pop up more than often as part of the explanations of why they use them as opposed 'best quality'.

[SatansHobbit]

"Hang on Robin, this may be enough to finish your mask."

New "Guano" by Revlon, men will go batshit about your eyes.

[Johnny Slick]

Bat poop does have its uses, primarily for fertilizer and, according to teh wikis, gunpowder, but I don't see any actual references to guano or "guanine", which is apparently the "extract" of guano they'd use (sounds more like a slight renaming to throw people off track more than an actual extract, but whatev). I do see plenty of references to glycerin, as well as "stearic acid", which is also made by breaking down animal fat. I'm guessing some of these other chemical substances like "panthenol" have some rude origins, but I'm not finding exactly how they're made. Everything comes from something...

So ladies, I am pretty sure this means that the next time you want to look good for your man the way to go about it is to rub some hamburger on your eyes.

[Sylvanz]

Originally Posted by snopes

“No, really!” The Arbonne salesperson assured me. “Our products are all natural. Other major brands of mascara contain bat poop. That’s what gives them that sheen.” snip

This implies that bat poop is somehow "unnatural." I can't think how anything Arbonne could come up with would be more natural than poop.

P&LL, Syl

[Der Induktionator]

Many cosmetics contain dihydrogen oxide, a common solvent that is extracted using natural processes from the excretions of animals and from other sources.

Human urine is composed primarily of this chemical.