Determination of hazardous ingredients in personal care products using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

In the present work, the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique is applied to explore the concentration of toxic elements present in cosmetic materials. The elemental analysis of chromium (Cr), magnesium (Mg), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are selected as major elements and manganese (Mn), sodium (Na), potassium (P), sulfur (S), silicon (Si) and titanium (Ti) as minor elements in cosmetic products. In this technique, a plasma plume is generated by using an Nd:YAG Laser of 532 nm wavelength and spectral lines for the respective samples are observed. Four different samples of cosmetic products are selected, i.e. two samples for lipstick and two for eyeshadow. The observed spectral lines of all major and minor elements are used to calculate their concentration in all samples through the intensity ratio method. Among selected lipstick and eyeshadow samples, one sample is branded, and one is collected from the local market. It is observed that chromium, magnesium and lead have strong spectral lines and consequently show high concentration. The calculated concentrations are then compared to permissible limits set by the Food and Drug Administration with regard to the cosmetics industry. The concentration of these toxic elements in selected local cosmetic samples exceeds the safe permissible limit for human use and could lead to serious health problems.