Maćkiewicz et al. 2025 — Elemental analysis of EU-market deodorants and antiperspirants
Maćkiewicz et al. measured elemental composition in 72 deodorants and antiperspirants available on the Polish/EU market using ICP-OES, with selected SEM-EDS confirmation. The sample set covered roll-on, stick, and solid mineral alum products, including aluminium-based, aluminium-zirconium-based, natural compound-based, and alcohol-based formulations. The paper uses percent, mg/L, and a table labelled [mg/kg] in different places; this page preserves the source’s own unit labels and flags the inconsistency rather than converting values.
Key numbers
The 72 samples included 57 antiperspirants and 15 deodorants. By form, there were 58 roll-ons, 7 sticks, and 7 mineral alum products. By active-substance group, the study lists 49 aluminium-based products, 8 aluminium-zirconium-based products, 12 natural compound-based products, and 3 alcohol-based products. The study did not include sprays.
Aluminium was the dominant element in many formulations. The abstract reports aluminium concentrations of 0.9% to 4.4% in antiperspirants and up to 4.7% in potassium-aluminium alums. Section 2.1 reports a maximum Al value of 4.682% in a solid potassium-aluminium alum deodorant, more than 42% of samples above 3% Al, and four samples below 0.1% Al.
Zirconium reached 3% in a women’s antiperspirant stick containing aluminium-zirconium tetrachlorohydrex GLY. The paper reports that 11% of tested samples contained more than 0.5% Zr; two men’s antiperspirant samples without labelled zirconium-containing compounds had measured Zr concentrations of 0.357% and 0.4541%.
Lead was quantified in a large subset of samples. The abstract and Section 2.1 report Pb in 35 of 72 samples, with 19 samples exceeding 1 mg/L and the maximum Pb value 15.90 mg/L in a solid potassium-aluminium alum. The conclusion states Pb was quantified in 37 of 72 samples; this page records that source-internal count discrepancy and uses the shared maximum of 15.90 mg/L.
Cadmium was tested but not quantified above the LOQ in any sample. The ICP-OES LOQ table reports Cd LOQ 0.005 mg/L and Pb LOQ 0.011 mg/L.
Other source-reported maxima included Sb 3.700 mg/L in a roll-on antiperspirant sample with aluminium-zirconium compounds, Cr 5.561 mg/L in a solid potassium-aluminium alum, Co 0.569 mg/L in a roll-on antiperspirant, Cu 45 mg/L in a universal sweat-blocker product, Mn 2.537 mg/L in a calcium/magnesium/zinc hydroxyapatite sample, Ni 12.26 mg/L in a men’s roll-on antiperspirant, Zn 1854 mg/L in a hydroxyapatite/zinc PCA deodorant, Ag 218.4 mg/L in a stick antiperspirant, and Ca 5692 mg/L in a hydroxyapatite-containing deodorant.
The form-group summary table is labelled [mg/kg] and reports median values including Al 28,200 for roll-ons, 36,280 for mineral alum products, and 26,840 for sticks; Zr 0.687 for roll-ons, 1.060 for mineral alum products, and 21,420 for sticks; Sn 0.058 for roll-ons, <LOQ for mineral alum products, and 6.424 for sticks; Cr 0.135 for roll-ons, 1.230 for mineral alum products, and <LOQ for sticks; and Ni 0.229 for roll-ons, 0.123 for mineral alum products, and <LOQ for sticks. Because nearby text and the abstract frequently use mg/L, this group-summary table should be treated as source-labelled summary context until unit harmonisation is audited.
Methods (brief)
Samples were purchased from brick-and-mortar stores, beauty supply stores, and online retailers operating within the Polish market between 2022 and 2025. Approximately 0.15-0.20 g of product was mineralised with 69% HNO3 and 36.5-38.0% HCl in an UltraWave microwave-assisted closed-loop system, then diluted to 25 mL with an internal indium standard. Elemental analysis used a Thermo Scientific iCAP 7400 ICP-OES with three replicates per sample. LOQs ranged from 0.0010 mg/L for Ti to 0.99 mg/L for K, and CRM recoveries ranged from 88.6% to 114.7%. Selected samples were also dried and examined by SEM-EDS to confirm morphology and elemental composition.
Implications
Certification: This is direct occurrence evidence for the deodorants product category, especially Al, Zr, Pb, Sb, Cr, Ni, and Cd nondetect context. The values are not brand-comparable rankings and should not be converted across the paper’s mixed unit labels without a later unit-audit pass.
Courses: The source is useful for explaining formulation-driven elemental profiles in antiperspirants versus mineral-alum deodorants, and for teaching why unit labels in the original paper must be preserved when they are inconsistent.
App: The source can support a deodorant/antiperspirant evidence card that distinguishes aluminium-based, aluminium-zirconium-based, mineral alum, and alcohol-based products at the category level. Brand names and brand-by-brand values are intentionally omitted.
Microbiome: Not applicable.
Wiki pages this source may touch
Verification notes
Identity checks before drafting found no existing wiki/sources/ hit for DOI 10.3390/molecules30204050, raw handle MFK_paper-07-mikolajczyk-2025-eu-deodorants-metals, cite key mackiewicz2025-eu-deodorants-elements, or the exact title. The filename labels the paper as “Mikolajczyk,” but the PDF byline and metadata identify Maćkiewicz et al.; the cite key follows the byline, not the filename. The DOI, authors, title, journal, year, and CC BY license were checked against the first page and PDF metadata. Key values were checked against the abstract, Section 2.1, Tables 1/3/6, and the conclusion in /tmp/hmi-fem-005.txt. The page preserves the source’s mixed unit labels (%, mg/L, and Table 1 [mg/kg]) and flags the 35-versus-37 Pb count discrepancy. No speciation is reported for Cr, Pb, Cd, or any other element. The source sampled well-known and local brands, but this page reports only category/form/active-substance summaries under the brand firewall. deodorants is used as the product slug because the sample set is general deodorants/antiperspirants, not specifically feminine deodorants. npm run evidence:source-routes exited 0 and generated one deodorants product route; routing_malformed.csv contains an advisory-only missing-ingredients warning because no closed ingredient slug is appropriate for this general cosmetic product matrix.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4039d20 | 2026-06-10 | scope: broaden ingest to the full upstream+downstream literature (marine, atmospheric, attribution, exposure, toxicology) — inclusion is the default |