Our Story

1 in 5 couples struggle with infertility.¹
Women use approximately 12 personal care products per day comprising 168 chemicals.²
The FDA has banned only 11 chemicals from cosmetics while Europe has banned over 1,300.^3,8
Studies show that some chemicals play a role in endocrine disruption, linking to reduced fertility rates and reproductive birth defects.^4,5,6,7

Our Why

No matter where you are in your fertility journey, being mindful of your reproductive health and hormone function is important! This means also being aware of the personal care products you're using to ensure they do not include chemicals that may interfere with your natural hormone function and even potential fetal development.

We hear you on how confusing it is to navigate the beauty products landscape. As a conscious consumer, it’s frustrating to see conflicting information and greenwashing online about the safety and sustainability of ingredients in cosmetics. Especially for those focused on reproductive health and trying to reduce the toxin load in various areas of their life, it shouldn’t have to be this time-consuming to screen ingredient labels! Our Founder, Michelle Calderon, knows these struggles – that is why she wanted to create the first makeup line with fertility and pregnancy in mind, helping people look and feel beautiful through life's stages.

Our Beginning

Addition Beauty has created our very own “No Addition” List of blacklisted ingredients that we won't use in our formulations. Each ingredient was handpicked to ensure that they do NOT include harmful chemicals that may adversely impact natural hormone function, fertility, or show a link to birth defects. This means no endocrine-disrupting chemicals, petrochemicals (PEG's), synthetic colorants, phthalates, artificial fragrances, parabens, benzophenone, phenoxyethanol, triclosan, talc, ethanolamines, BHA, BHT, or siloxanes!

Addition Beauty is cruelty-free, fertility-friendly, and environment-loving! We strive to reduce the carbon footprint through sustainable packaging. We believe in ethical sourcing of raw materials and manufacturing, and we have sustainability in mind throughout the entire supply chain.

Our Founder

michelle

Meet Michelle

"After speaking with many women, it’s clear that there is a need for conscious and quality makeup formulations created with reproductive health and hormone function in mind to be a safer option during sensitive life stages. Especially when it comes to pre-conception and pregnancy, physicians will advise their patients to reduce stress, make exercise adjustments, and eat more nutritiously, but conversations around using cosmetics without endocrine disrupting chemicals or other harmful chemicals is often left out!"

"The average U.S. woman uses 12 personal care products per day, which is approximately 168 chemicals, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). There is enough of a risk here to have cumulative exposure to those harmful chemicals that should be avoided during pre-conception and pregnancy, increasing the risk of birth defects or reduced fertility rates. It’s never too early to start making healthier and safer changes to your personal care beauty routine to support your natural endocrine function and fertility.”

Michelle received her MBA from Northeastern University and created Addition Beauty while completing her studies. She worked in the cosmetics industry as a color cosmetic chemist in the early part of her career. Michelle’s diversified work experience includes a previous entrepreneurial venture, technical software sales role and current active role in corporate finance. Her love for science meshed with business and creativity allowed her to come up with an innovative solution that can have a positive impact on the beauty industry, women's fertility journeys, and those aspiring to live a nontoxic lifestyle.

Sources

¹https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/infertility/index.htm/
²https://www.ewg.org/the-toxic-twelve-chemicals-and-contaminants-in-cosmetics
³https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/prohibited-restricted-ingredients-cosmetics
⁴ Laura N. Vandenberg et al., Hormones & Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: Low-Dose Effects & Nonmonotonic Dose Responses, 33 Endocrine Rev. 378-455 (2012), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22419778
⁵ Chemicals like phthalates and triphenyl phosphate can disrupt the hormone system by mimicking or blocking a natural hormone. When an endocrine-disrupting chemical mimics a hormone, the chemical tricks the hormone’s receptor into thinking the chemical is the hormone. When the chemical blocks a hormone, the chemical can bind to a receptor and the hormone may not be activated. See Veldhoen N et al., The bactericidal agent triclosan modulates thyroid hormone-associated gene expression and disrupts postembryonic anuran development, Aquat Toxicol (June 2007), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17011055.
⁶ See, e.g., Nat’l Inst. of Envtl. Health Sci., Endocrine Disruptors, https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm (last visited Apr. 2, 2019).
⁷ E.g., Andrea C. Gore et al., Executive Summary to EDC-2: The Endocrine Society's Second Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals, 36 Endocrine Rev. 593-602 (2015), http://press.endocrine.org/doi/10.1210/er.2015-1093.
⁸https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/pdf/COSING_Annex%20II_v2.pdf

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Our Story

Our Why

Our Beginning

Our Founder

Meet Michelle