Heavy metals contamination in lipsticks and their associated health risks to lipstick consumers

Overview

Zakaria and Ho measured lead, cadmium, and chromium in 15 lipstick products selected from popularity rankings among surveyed lipstick users in Malaysia. The study reports concentrations in mg kg-1 and analyzes each lipstick in triplicate. Brand names were collected in the survey workflow, but this page reports only product category, country of production, price category, and coded sample values.

Key numbers

• Sample frame: 374 questionnaires were distributed to female staff in a Malaysian public university; the top 5 lipsticks in each price category were purchased, for 15 products and 45 triplicate analyses.
• Price categories: category I “cheap” was < RM29.99; category II “intermediate” was RM30-RM59.99; category III “expensive” was > RM60.
• Lead in Table 2 ranged from 0.77 ± 0.64 mg kg-1 to 15.44 ± 2.08 mg kg-1; the abstract reports the same overall lead range as 0.77-15.44 mg kg-1.
• Cadmium was ND in six products and detected from 0.06 ± 0.05 mg kg-1 to 0.33 ± 0.05 mg kg-1; the abstract reports the detected range as 0.06-0.33 mg kg-1.
• Chromium in Table 2 ranged from 0.24 ± 0.15 mg kg-1 and 0.24 ± 0.14 mg kg-1 up to 2.50 ± 1.44 mg kg-1; the abstract reports the chromium range as 0.48-2.50 mg kg-1.
• Highest table values: lead 15.44 ± 2.08 mg kg-1 in a category III brown lipstick made in the United States; cadmium 0.33 ± 0.05 mg kg-1 in a category I red lipstick made in Malaysia; chromium 2.50 ± 1.44 mg kg-1 in a category III pink lipstick made in the United States.
• Method performance in Table 1: lead (Pb) recovery 87 ± 3%, LOD 0.63 mg kg-1, LOQ 1.90 mg kg-1; cadmium (Cd) recovery 94 ± 7%, LOD 0.06 mg kg-1, LOQ 0.23 mg kg-1; chromium (Cr) recovery 91 ± 6%, LOD 0.21 mg kg-1, LOQ 0.66 mg kg-1.
• Health-risk table context: cadmium HQ ranged from 0.028 to 0.165; chromium HQ ranged from 0.040 to 0.411; all reported HI values were below 1. Lead was excluded from the HQ/HI mixture because the authors state that USEPA has no oral RfD for inorganic lead.

Methods (brief)

The authors digested 0.4 g lipstick with 6 mL of 69% nitric acid in an Anton Paar Multiwave 3000 microwave digester, using a program of 130 °C (ramp 15 min, hold 20 min), 200 °C (ramp 15 min, hold 20 min), and 50 °C cooling for 10 min. Extracts were filtered to remove wax and glitter and diluted to 50 mL. Metals were measured by ICP-OES with calibration over 0.0005 to 5 mg L-1; each lipstick was analyzed in triplicate.

Related evidence

• Lip products (lipstick, gloss, lip liner, adult lip balm)

Update history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git.