Chemical and microbiological analysis of cosmetics for hair dyeing and body painting

The origin of the use of body painting and hair dyeing is ancientby traditional preparation based on natural extracts. Currently thistrend is rising, and the use of products based on natural dyes fromparallel import and on-line sales is rising too. Concomitantly, thereports of adverse reactions and the interests of health profession-als are rising too. In this study 78 products for hair dyeing andbody painting were analyzed. The samples were bought in ethnicshops, local markets and on-line shops and compared with prod-ucts from specialized shops. All samples were subjected to AerobicPlate Count (APC), yeasts and molds numeration as provided by ISOstandard methods. Chemical analyses for, p-phenylenediamine andsodium picramate were carried out too. 58 samples had shown anaerobic microbial load between 70 and 7,200,000 cfu/g. 29 samples(37%) had a fungal load between 820 and 150,000 cfu/g. Amongstthe fungal species, the ochratoxinogenicAspergillus nigeris themost frequently isolated. The 30% of samples resulted contami-nated by at least one class of mycotoxins.17 samples (23%) hadp-phenylenediamine or sodium picramate and in only 8 out of17 (59%) their presence were stated on the label. The cosmeticspurchased in ethnic shops have shown worse chemical and micro-biological qualities than cosmetics purchased in specialized shops,which showed proper microbiological and chemical properties. Ourresults suggest that the chemical and microbiological attention onthis kind of cosmetics should be increased in particular on thoseproducts distributed in ethnic shops, local markets and on-lin