Pawlaczyk et al. 2021 - metallic impurities in eye shadows purchased in Poland

Pawlaczyk et al. measured metallic impurities in 94 eye-shadow samples available on the Polish market, including products marketed for children over 3 years old. The study covers product type, consumer group, price range, color, manufacturer code, and country of production without requiring brand-level reporting in the wiki. Cd and Pb were the main regulatory exceedance signals: two samples exceeded the Polish Cd limit and one sample exceeded the Polish Pb limit.

Key numbers

• Sample frame: 94 eye-shadow samples, including matte and pearl products, adult and child consumer groups, four price ranges, twelve colors, eight coded manufacturers, and four countries of production.
• Metals measured: Ag, Ba, Bi, Cd, Pb, Sr, and Tl in micrograms/kg; 1000 micrograms/kg equals 1 mg/kg.
• Cd: mean 100.2 micrograms/kg, median 37.24 micrograms/kg, maximum 3985 micrograms/kg. The highest Cd result was a pink eye shadow intended for children, approximately 4 mg/kg.
• Pb: mean 1543 micrograms/kg, median 806.5 micrograms/kg, maximum 15,953 micrograms/kg. The highest Pb result was approximately 16 mg/kg.
• Ba: mean 82,247 micrograms/kg, median 18,061 micrograms/kg, maximum 2,153,693 micrograms/kg.
• Bi: mean 14,755 micrograms/kg, median 303.6 micrograms/kg, maximum 1,184,575 micrograms/kg.
• Sr: mean 4119 micrograms/kg, median 1600 micrograms/kg, maximum 62,837 micrograms/kg.
• Regulatory exceedance statements from the authors: two samples exceeded Poland’s Cd limit of 0.5 mg/kg, one sample exceeded Poland’s Pb limit of 10 mg/kg, 17 of 94 samples exceeded Germany’s Cd value of 0.1 mg/kg, and about 15 of 94 samples exceeded Germany’s Pb value of 2 mg/kg.

Methods (brief)

The authors extracted eye-shadow samples with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a closed microwave system and measured Ag, Ba, Bi, Cd, Pb, Sr, and Tl by ICP-MS. The article reports that Ag, Cd, and Tl were below the limit of quantification in some samples, while Ba, Bi, Pb, and Sr were confirmed in all studied samples. Part II of the study covers additional metals and risk assessment; this page is limited to the Part I metals and values.

Implications

Certification: The paper contributes direct occurrence data for eye makeup and children’s makeup, especially Cd and Pb in eye shadows. Values are product-category evidence and should not be converted into brand rankings.

Courses: The study is useful for explaining how color cosmetics can contain trace metallic impurities from pigments, fillers, and raw materials, and why child-marketed cosmetics need separate attention.

App: The dataset supports eye-makeup and children’s-makeup evidence surfaces, with jurisdiction and market labels for Poland/EU.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• eye-makeup
• childrens-makeup
• lead
• cadmium
• barium
• thallium

Verification notes

• The paper reports coded manufacturer groups but this page does not reproduce company codes in the key values, preserving the brand firewall.
• Concentrations are reported in micrograms/kg in Table 2; this page notes mg/kg equivalents only where the authors compare values to regulatory limits.
• The study measures total element concentrations and does not provide speciation for any metal.

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.