Microbiological quality assessment of facial cosmetics

Abstract

Cosmetics are beauty enhancing agents for which microbial quality concerns have been neglected by users who often see them as innocuous. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbiological quality of selected facial cosmetic products. Thirty (30) samples each of in-use and unused cosmetics were obtained from users and cosmetics shops in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The cosmetics sampled were lipsticks, eye shadows and foundations. The aerobic plate count and enrichment test methods were employed to isolate, enumerate and identify microbial contaminants using conventional presumptive and phenotypic identification methods. Microbial contaminants were present in 80% of the in-use cosmetics and 46.7% in the unused cosmetics. Results revealed presence of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp in the in-use cosmetics and Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Aspergillus spp. and Rhizopus spp. in the unused cosmetics. Results revealed higher levels of contamination for in-use cosmetics with both pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbial species compared to the unused cosmetics. Results also indicated the failure of added preservatives to effectively inhibit microbial load to acceptable levels. Cosmetic use is on the increase and this study exposes the risk of using contaminated cosmetics products.Keywords: Cosmetics, pathogenic, microbial load