Overview
This page is a scaffolded entry for HMTc Taxonomy v2.0 Category 13 (Cosmetics and Personal Care — Leave-on), Row 3: Face/neck leave-on skin care (moisturizers, serums, night creams, leave-on masks). Studies for this row are still being read. Where a section is empty, the row has not yet accumulated contributing sources of the required kind.
Literature scope
The Heavy Metal Index source corpus is currently focused on food and food-contact materials. This page documents an HMTc Taxonomy v2.0 row in the category Cosmetics and Personal Care — Leave-on for which no peer-reviewed primary or government sources have yet been ingested. The page exists as the routing destination for future ingest. Until sources land, the literature-evidence sections below are deliberately empty rather than guessed; HMTc certification thresholds for products in this row continue to be developed under the certification program at heavymetalcertified.com, not on this public page.
Reading guide
Legal, regulatory and retailer teams can use the cited measurements, applicable limits and study limitations to assess the evidence for this category.
Quality teams can examine product form, measurement basis and sources of variation. Journalists and researchers can follow each reference to the original findings and methods.
Related tools and pages: heavymetalcertified.com · methodology
Evidence summary
Sources for this row will be listed here once they are catalogued.
Source Evidence Inventory
Sources for this row will be listed here once they are catalogued.
Supporting evidence and scope
Broader-scope sources for this row will be listed here when they are catalogued.
Federal/Regulatory Limits vs Field Findings
Regulatory limits for this row will be listed here once they are catalogued.
Controls and mitigation
Practical interventions to reduce heavy-metal load in this row, ordered by impact magnitude. Each lever names the magnitude of the effect with a cited source; cross-links to dedicated Mitigation pages where they exist.
- Sourcing levers — Not yet catalogued.
- Agronomic levers — Not yet catalogued. (See Agronomic mitigation for general agronomic mitigation context.)
- Processing levers — Not yet catalogued. (See Processing mitigation.)
- Formulation levers — Not yet catalogued. (See Formulation mitigation.)
- Testing and QC levers — Not yet catalogued. (See Testing and quality-control mitigation when published.)
- Packaging and storage levers — Not yet catalogued. (See Packaging and storage mitigation when published.)
How standards math uses this page
HMT&C certification thresholds for this row are developed under the certification program at heavymetalcertified.com, not on this page. The row-standard for this row is an aggregate computed from the contributing source pool in the row’s native finished-product basis; it is not a per-source decoration of any single value cited on this page. This public page reports literature evidence only.
Historical recalls and enforcement
Public regulatory events for this row, such as recalls and import alerts, will be listed here as they are catalogued.
Methodology
This page reports what the cited sources say about heavy-metal concentrations in face/neck leave-on skin care (moisturizers, serums, night creams, leave-on masks). Speciation is non-substitutable (iAs vs tAs, MeHg vs tHg, Cr-VI vs total Cr). Basis is preserved (finished-product as sold unless the source specifies otherwise; see each row for the basis label). Non-detect handling follows each source’s reporting convention. Pooling is avoided across LOD/LOQ, period, geography, and analytical-basis differences. HMT&C certification thresholds for products in this row are developed under the certification program at heavymetalcertified.com, not on this page; this public page reports literature evidence only.
The applicable regulatory jurisdictions for this row are: FDA cosmetics, EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009.
Sources
Sources for this row will be listed here once they are catalogued.
Sources
Source records associated with this topic. Inclusion does not establish that every finding applies to this product or ingredient. References above identify works cited in the text.
| # | Citation | Year | Type | Used on this page for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bashir et al. 2025. Heavy metal in cosmetics and its risk to future generation in remote area of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Trarkhel District Sudhnoti, Scientific Reports 15: 43847 | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | PK Pb, Cd, Cu, Co, Ag, Ni, Zn, tAs, Mn, tHg occurrence in 30 cosmetic products purchased from local markets in Trarkhel, District Sudhnoti, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K), Pakistan, 2023:… (n=30) |
| 2 | Haji et al. 2025. Hidden Toxic Elements in Creams and Foundations, Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences 6(2): 197-203 | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | TZ Cu, Cd, tHg, Pb, tAs, Sb, Te, Bi, Nb, Ta occurrence in Seven creams and three foundation products assessed for toxic elements; the paper reports individual brand names, but this… (n=10) |
| 3 | Kicińska et al. 2025. Health risks from heavy metals in cosmetic products available in the online consumer market, Scientific Reports 15: 316 | 2025 | Peer-reviewed | PL/EU/US Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn occurrence in 23 cosmetic products purchased from the online consumer market: 4 foundations, 4 blushes, 4 lipsticks, 4 face creams,… (n=23) |
| 4 | Washington State Department of 2024. Policy Statement: Interim Policy on Lead in Cosmetics — enforcement discretion under the Washington Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act (Chapter 70A.560 RCW), Washington State Department of Ecology, Publication 24-04-036 (issued December 19, 2024; minor revisions and clarifications January 15, 2025) | 2024 | Government report | US-WA Pb occurrence in Regulatory enforcement-discretion policy issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology under authority of the Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act… |
| 5 | Bîrsan et al. 2023. Mercury exposure in cosmetics and human health risk, Farmacia | 2023 | Peer-reviewed | RO/PL tHg occurrence in seven high-demand cosmetic product categories, seven products per category (n=49) |
| 6 | Aldayel et al. 2018. Heavy Metals Concentration in Facial Cosmetics, Natural Products Chemistry & Research 6(1): 1000303 | 2018 | Peer-reviewed | SA Pb, Cd, tAs, tHg, Al, Cr, Ni, Sn, Sb, U, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Ag, Ba, V, Mo, Li occurrence in Thirty facial-cosmetic samples representing nine ‘most expensive’ facial-cosmetic brands purchased from the Saudi Arabian (Riyadh) market. Four product… (n=30) |
| 7 | Sahu et al. 2014. Heavy Metals in Cosmetics, Centre for Science and Environment Pollution Monitoring Laboratory report PML/PR-45/2014 | 2014 | Nonprofit | IN Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, tHg occurrence in Seventy-three cosmetic products purchased from markets in Delhi: 30 lipsticks, 8 lip balms, and 3 anti-ageing creams tested… (n=73) |
| 8 | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2011. Exposure Factors Handbook: 2011 Edition — Chapter 17, Consumer Products, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA/600/R-09/052F | 2011 | Government report | Chapter 17 of the U.S. EPA’s 2011 Exposure Factors Handbook (EFH) compiles consumer-product use and exposure data — frequency of… |
| 9 | Tjandraatmadja et al. 2010. Sources of contaminants in domestic wastewater: nutrients and additional elements from household products, CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship Report (Smart Water Fund Round 3 — Project 5), February 2010 (ISSN 1835-095X) | 2010 | Industry | AU Sb, Cr, Co, Mo, Se occurrence in One hundred and fifty-six household and personal-care products purchased from major supermarkets in Melbourne, Australia between February and… (n=156) |
| 10 | European Chemical Industry Ecology 1992. Nickel, Cobalt and Chromium in Consumer Products: Allergic Contact Dermatitis, ECETOC Technical Report No. 45, Brussels, March 1992 (ISSN 0773-8072-45) | 1992 | Industry | EU/US/IL Ni, Co, Cr, Cr-VI occurrence in Literature-review compilation of nickel, cobalt and chromium concentrations measured in consumer products by 28 published studies (1956-1990) and… |
Update history
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