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Face wash, lipstick, makeup, and nail polish often carry labels like "tested" and "clinically-proven." Cosmetics like these are big business in the US, constituting deaura about a $60 billion market
.

But how does the cosmetics industry regulate the safety of its products?

In the US, the FDA oversees cosmetics. But unlike drugs (which must get approval before they can be sold), cosmetics do not
. As a result, companies that use or sell unsafe ingredients usually only get in trouble if they get caught.

According to the FDA's website
, it's up to individual companies, rather than the FDA, to ensure their products are safe. Compared to Canada and the European Union, both of whom have pretty strict oversight over cosmetics, the FDA has very few hard-and-fast rules.

Here's what is still lurking in our cosmetics:

Lipstick

Flickr/Peter Grifoni



The makeup brand Lime Crime came under fire from the FDA in July
for having color additives, the single ingredient the FDA does require approval for in cosmetics, in some of its products.

"Color is something that the FDA takes very seriously," said Robert Lochhead, a polymer science professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Lochhead told Business Insider the reason the FDA is so concerned with color additives relative to other chemicals is part of the agency's history: In the 1950s
, some of the color additives in food and other materials caused some serious health complications, namely FDjsessionid=0F9FB53803FD2EBB963304A5C04321C5.f04t01"> study
which suggested a link between preservatives called parabens and cancer (though ultimately no link was actually found
), for example, the company opted to swap them out for different ingredients.

That's just one company though ? and others may not be as careful. As a way to combat the problems in the beauty industry, there seems to be an increased interest in organic beauty products over the last several years, especially in Europe and the US. Sales were projected to reach $15 billion globally
?in 2015, still just a fraction of the US market.