*sigh* I am grateful for their honesty, but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed.

When I first talked to NARS, they told me how careful they were in watching their gluten content. They told me they tested periodically to double check that their products were safe. While it took some time to finally get this information from them, at least I got answers!

Well, after the Arbonne thing and the realization that I need to reevaluate my old “questionnaires”, NARS was the next obvious company on the list to double check. Big, many products and not natural in the slightest. Some of my fab, smart, observant readers also emailed me wondering the exact same thing. So I set to work finding out.

I finally got my answer back from them and I wasn’t very happy about it.

Here’s what the gal told me:

Our statement [has] changed recently to say that we can’t guarantee that there will be any traces of gluten.

Many of our products do not contain ingredients derived from barley, oats, rye, spelt or wheat, which are commonly known sources of gluten. however, due to the wide range of raw materials and equipment used during the manufacturing of our products, we cannot confirm that our products are free from any traces of gluten.

As far as ingredients derived from barley, oats, rye, spelt or wheat we provide our clients with ingredient lists for any product in which they are interested as a lot of our products do not contain such ingredients.

This is completely different than what I’d heard before. Pretty much a 180 turn around from what they told me to start with.

As sad as this makes me, better to know now than to not know, right? I am grateful we at least know now!

However, I’m a bit troubled.

I do not now know if this has always been the case and they misinformed me to begin with, or if they really did try to be 100% gluten free for a while and just gave up.

I do know that I’ve had a few mysterious “watery/burning eye” days when wearing makeup and I wasn’t 100% sure what the problem was. Allergies? Someone’s perfume? Too much wind? (all plausible for me) But it makes sense that the NARS mascara I was wearing could be cross contaminated, because in hindsight, that’s exactly how my eyes react to gluten. The reactions from the NARS mascara were just so mild I wasn’t sure where it was coming from.

Since NARS is such a huge company, I’m pushing out an emergency update to remove it from the gluten free makeup list.

Ugh, I just feel kinda sick about this. Guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that NARS is gluten free no longer, but still. All those options just… Gone.

Thank you NARS for the clarification. but I’m still really sad about this. NARS – gluten free no longer.

 

Looking for more gluten-free brands?

Here on Gluten Free Makeup Gal, I’ve built a list of all the safest gluten free bands of makeup, skin care, hair care and body care on the market. You can also check the following guides on: