A team of researchers warns against the use of makeup and cosmetic products which can be harmful to the health of our skin.
- Heavy metals, chemical substances, nanomaterials… Makeup and cosmetic products can, due to their composition, prove harmful to the health of our skin, according to a study carried out by three Spanish researchers.
- First, they can contain many heavy metals, such as arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury or even nickel. “Despite their known toxicity, some of these compounds appear in makeup formulas as impurities or traces, without being included in the ingredient list.”
- Other threats include the presence of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetic products, regularly accused of being harmful to human health in the long term, as well as nanomaterials contained in products, which can cause lung problems when inhaled. .
Heavy metals, toxic substances, nanomaterials… They may be a beauty asset but makeup and cosmetic products can, due to their composition, prove harmful to the health of our skin. This is what three Spanish researchers from Miguel Hernández University say in an article recently published and translated in The Conversation.
Substances harmful to the skin in makeup products
Foundation, blush, eye pencil, mascara… All these beauty products are applied to often sensitive areas, namely around the eyes, “where the skin is thinner”, or on the lips and mucous membranes, “which do not have a stratum corneum to prevent penetration”, write the professors. Not to mention the risk of ingestion of products such as lipstick, likely to be swallowed through saliva, or the risk of inhaling powders through the nose.
But the application of these cosmetic products would not pose so much of a problem if they did not contain harmful substances, explain the researchers, who make a non-exhaustive list.
First, they can contain many heavy metals, such as arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead, mercury or even nickel. According to the investigation carried out by the Spanish, glosses and eye shadows particularly imported from China are composed of certain heavy metals “high concentrations”. Worse, “we even find it in children’s makeup toys”, whose skin is “finer and still developing, [et donc] more vulnerable” to the passage of substances. “Despite their known toxicity, some of these compounds appear in makeup formulas as impurities or traces, without being included in the ingredient list.”
Beauty products harmful to human health?
Another threat is the presence of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetic products, intended to increase their durability or improve their application to the skin. These “eternal chemical pollutants” are regularly accused of contaminating populations and being harmful to human health in the long term. “A recent study found that the highest levels of PFAS are detected in water-, oil- or clothing-resistant makeup as well as long-lasting products.write the researchers.
Finally, beauty products contain a certain dose of nanomaterials, supposed “enhance texture and sensory experience”. If these tiny particles “remain in the epidermis without penetrating the body”, However, they can “cause lung problems” when inhaled.
