Titanium Dioxide, Tallow, & The Truth About “Clean” Makeup & Skincare | Emilie Toups

WATCH THE FULL-LENGTH EPISODE HERE ON YOUTUBE! 

Emilie Toups and I talked once before about tallow, and I've been cheering her and Toups & Co on from the sidelines ever since. She's built something genuinely rare: a beauty brand where the founder, the chemist, and the manufacturer are all under one roof. We caught up on family first - she's homesteading and homeschooling five kids in Alabama, ages 3 to 15, and I loved hearing how normal and rich that life actually looks, despite the stigma that still follows homeschooling. If you're curious about resources, she pointed to Ginny Yurich's 1000 Hours Outside and the Wild + Free conference, both worth a look.

Then we got into the real reason I wanted her back: color cosmetics. I think people have done real work cleaning up their skincare, but makeup is often the blind spot - and it's worse, in some ways, because you're wearing it all day without rinsing it off. Emilie broke down exactly what to look for (PFAS, talc, silicones, synthetic preservatives) and the tell-tale marketing language - "long-wear," "waterproof" - that signals plasticizers are involved. The parallel to Teflon cookware was not lost on me: the same chemistry that keeps a mascara waterproof is a close cousin of what makes a non-stick pan shed thousands of plastic particles.

I loved her honesty about how Toups actually started - her then-seven-year-old daughter digging through her drugstore makeup bag was the moment she realized she had to build something safer, starting from scratch. We also finally got a straight answer on titanium dioxide, which might be the single most common question she gets: the EU's 2022 food ban was about nano-sized particles that can be absorbed into the bloodstream, and the non-nano titanium dioxide she uses is roughly 100 times larger and doesn't carry the same risk profile. Same ingredient name, completely different safety story - almost identical to the dry-rendered versus high-heat imported tallow distinction we talked about last time.

The part of this conversation that stuck with me most, though, was learning how much risk hides in the manufacturing equipment itself, not just the formula. Pressed powders are typically stamped out using Teflon-coated presses, which can introduce PFAS into a product that otherwise reads completely clean on the label. Emilie is chasing down PFAS-free manufacturing equipment that barely exists in the US market right now - which is exactly why she insists on doing everything in-house in Alabama, in small monthly batches, even though it's the hardest possible way to run a cosmetics company. That kind of radical transparency, where the founder genuinely knows everything that touches her product, is rare, and I think it's the direction this entire industry needs to move.

Visit www.toupsandco.com/willcole25 and use code WILLCOLE25 for 25% off your first purchase.

A few of my favorite things we cover in this episode: 

• Toups & Co's growth into full color cosmetics since her last appearance
• Family life: homeschooling five kids and a month-long RV trip through France
• The real stigma around homeschooling, and the resources that help
• Why "every ingredient earns its place" pulled Toups into makeup, not just skincare
• Why color cosmetics deserve as much scrutiny as skincare
• Red-flag ingredients in conventional makeup: PFAS, talc, silicones, fragrance
• Waterproof mascara's hidden link to Teflon-style PFAS chemistry
• The "gateway" products for going clean: lip products and foundation
• Origin story: her daughter digging through a toxic makeup bag
• Titanium dioxide, explained: nano vs. non-nano
• The tallow parallel: dry-rendered vs. high-heat imported tallow
• No lake dyes - just US-made iron oxides and mined micas
• The in-house bio-preservative breakthrough chemists said was impossible
• Key actives: bakuchiol, helichrysum, Kakadu plum, evening primrose
• Small-batch, local manufacturing and full supply chain transparency
• MOCRA and the new documentation burden on indie beauty brands
• The PFAS risk hiding in Teflon-coated pressed-powder equipment
• Emilie's actual morning and evening Toups routine
• Closing round: a conspiracy theory, travel plans, and what's next for Toups in 2027

Products Mentioned:

• Toups & Co — clean skincare and color cosmetics, farm-to-face, manufactured in-house in Alabama (use code WILLCOLE25 for 25% off)
• Toups & Co Reparative Serum — bakuchiol-based retinol alternative
• Toups & Co Glow Serum — helichrysum and evening primrose
• Toups & Co Vitamin C Serum — Kakadu plum plus two additional vitamin C forms
• Toups & Co Frankincense Balm — tallow-based
• Toups & Co Sea Buckthorn Cleansing Oil
• Toups & Co tinted lip balm, mineral foundation, and mascara
• 1000 Hours Outside by Ginny Yurich - https://1000hoursoutside.com
• Wild + Free homeschool conference (Ainsley Arment) 
• Heal Your Cells by Dr. Will Cole 

Episode Sponsors:

• Visit www.toupsandco.com/willcole25 and use code WILLCOLE25 for 25% off your first purchase.

Happy listening, and we hope you learned a little bit more on the art of being well!

If you like what you hear, please rate and review the podcast, hit subscribe and pass it along to a friend.

In Health,

Dr. Will Cole