Beauty
products contain various industrial chemicals to increase
their functionality and appearance. The frequent use of beauty products
may increase human exposure to industrial chemicals, but to date,
their chemical components remain poorly characterized. Our work characterized
the chemical components in lipstick and nail polish by screening for
a total of 231 chemicals from seven categories, including organophosphate
esters (OPEs), phthalate esters (PAEs), non-PAE plasticizers, bisphenol
analogues, parabens, ultraviolet (UV) stabilizers, and antioxidants.
Their total concentrations ranged from 38.9 to 3810 μg/g (median
of 193 μg/g) and from 18.6 to 1910 μg/g (307 μg/g)
in lipstick (n = 34) and nail polish (n = 15), respectively. The chemical compositions differed between
lipstick and nail polish, but non-PAE plasticizers generally dominated
over other groups of chemicals. A number of emerging plasticizers,
OPEs, and UV stabilizers have rarely been reported in personal care
products or environmental samples but were found at very high levels
in beauty products, raising concern about their environmental release
and human exposure risk. Although the employment of a hazard quotient
approach suggested low health risks for exposure to industrial chemicals
from the use of beauty products, potential mixture effects from the
chemical cocktail and occupational exposure to beauty products should
not be overlooked.