TITLE:
Heavy Metals in Lipstick Products Marketed in Saudi Arabia
AUTHORS:
Faten M. Ali Zainy
KEYWORDS:
Lipstick, Heavy Metals, Inductivity Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES)
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications,
Vol.7 No.4,
December
21,
2017
ABSTRACT: The present study reports the content of 14 heavy
metals (Al, Fe, Ti, Ag, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in
twenty-two (n = 22) lipstick products of imported and locally manufactured at
the local market in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia using Inductivity Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrophotometer (ICP-OES). The overall
average contents of Al, Fe, Ti, Ag, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn were
3131.18 ± 0.09, 9642.92 ± 0.079, 46.59 ± 0.109, 0.545 ± 0.009, 2.041 ± 0.024,
1371.439 ± 0.085, 0.134 ± 0.008, 4.242 ± 0.02, ND, 3.934 ± 0.03, 19.712 ± 0.012, 20.196 ± 0.056,
0.725 ± 0.012, and 858.666 ± 0.083 μg/g, respectively. The correction coefficient
of the results is up to 0.9995, showing an excellent linear relationship
between metal concentrations in samples. The results also revealed that, the
total concentrations of toxic metals in various samples ranged from 1201.35 - 60,800.36 μg/g. The dark-colored lipstick samples 1B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 7B,
B8, 9B, and 10B revealed high content of total toxic metals compared to the
light-colored lipstick samples 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 4C, 5A, 7A, 8A, 9A, and 10A. The
concentrations of Al, Fe, Ba, and Zn in the samples within each class under
investigation are relatively high whereas the concentrations of Ag, As, Cd, Co,
Cu, and Pb are lowest; and Ti, Mn, and Ni contents were below 100 μg/g.
Chromium was not detected in any sample. Since no safe limits for most of these
metals relating to cosmetic products are available in Saudi Arabia, it is hard
to ascertain whether the values obtained in this study are relatively high or
low. Prolonged use of products containing these elements may pose a threat to
human health and could damage the environment.