The Gluten Free Myth: Since gluten must be ingested to be toxic, cosmetics and skin-care products are not a problem.
The Reality: It’s not that simple. “Gluten containing skin care products and cosmetics aren’t a problem unless you swallow them.” This statement sounds like the end of the discussion, particularly since it comes from a respected authority like The Mayo Clinic.
However, this answer does not deal with the issue of gluten free lipstick and other cosmetics that are applied to the lips . These products are certainly ingested, at least in small quantities. I searched the Avon, Estee Lauder, and Revlon websites and found no useful information. I found three smaller companies that specify that their lip cosmetics are gluten free: Afterglow, Burt’s Bees, EccoBella, and Red Apple (which includes the term “gluten free” on its home page).
Another complication is that there a group of websites that urge us to go “topically gluten free”. These sites believe we must never allow gluten to come into contact with our bodies — whether the product is ingested or not is irrelevant. Since there are several sites, I won’t give you a specific link. If you are interested in pursuing this matter, google the term “topically gluten free”.
Gluten Free Living magazine did a calculation. Most of a tube of lipstick is waxes and oils. Since the potentially gluten-contaminated part of lipstick is very small and the actual contamination would be a much smaller part of that, you would have to eat (entirely consume) more than 6 tubes of lipstick a day in order to come near the maximum 5 milligrams of gluten that is safe for most people with celiac disease. A few years ago Canada passed a labeling law for all cosmetics. Even lipsticks have an ingredient list. You need a magnifying glass to read it but the only gluten-contain was oat flour, which may have a contamination issue, and occasionally wheat germ oil, which was promoted as a benefit.There are so many real issues we need to be aware of, worrying about the miniscule amount of gluten you might get from lipstick is just not worth the effort. NOTE: Many people agree with this. I probably should have used the phrase “questioning” rather than “debunking” a myth.