Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Mar 17;29(6):1336.
doi: 10.3390/molecules29061336.

Mass-Spectrometry-Based Research of Cosmetic Ingredients

Alina Florina Serb  1 , Marius Georgescu  2   3 , Robert Onulov  4 , Cristina Ramona Novaconi  4 , Eugen Sisu  1 , Alexandru Bolocan  2 , Raluca Elena Sandu  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Mass-Spectrometry-Based Research of Cosmetic Ingredients

Alina Florina Serb et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Cosmetic products are chemical substances or mixtures used on the skin, hair, nails, teeth, and the mucous membranes of the oral cavity, whose use is intended to clean, protect, correct body odor, perfume, keep in good condition, or change appearance. The analysis of cosmetic ingredients is often challenging because of their huge complexity and their adulteration. Among various analytical tools, mass spectrometry (MS) has been largely used for compound detection, ingredient screening, quality control, detection of product authenticity, and health risk evaluation. This work is focused on the MS applications in detecting and quantification of some common cosmetic ingredients, i.e., preservatives, dyes, heavy metals, allergens, and bioconjugates in various matrices (leave-on or rinse-off cosmetic products). As a global view, MS-based analysis of bioconjugates is a narrow field, and LC- and GC/GC×GC-MS are widely used for the investigation of preservatives, dyes, and fragrances, while inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-MS is ideal for comprehensive analysis of heavy metals. Ambient ionization approaches and advanced separation methods (i.e., convergence chromatography (UPC2)) coupled to MS have been proven to be an excellent choice for the analysis of scented allergens. At the same time, the current paper explores the challenges of MS-based analysis for cosmetic safety studies.

Keywords: GC-MS; LC-MS; allergens; cosmetic ingredients; cosmetics regulation; dyes; fragrances; mass spectrometry (MS); metals; preservatives.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structures of parabens found in cosmetic products. (a) MP; (b) EP; (c) PP; (d) IPP; (e) BP; (f) IBP; (g) BeP; (h) HP.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chemical structures of (a) MIT (C4H5NOS) and (b) MCI (C4H4ClNOS).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Frosch P.J., Menne T., Lepoittevin J.P. Contact Dermatitis. 4th ed. Springer; Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: 2006. pp. 493–495.
    1. González-Muñoz P., Conde-Salazar L., Vañó-Galván S. Allergic Contact Dermatitis Caused by Cosmetic Products. Actas Dermosifiliogr. 2014;105:822–832. doi: 10.1016/j.ad.2013.12.018. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Martin K.I., Glaser D.A. Cosmeceuticals: The new medicine of beauty. Mo Med. 2011;108:60–63. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Iwata H., Shimada K. Formulas, Ingredients and Production of Cosmetics: Technology of Skin-and Hair-Care Products in Japan. Springer; Tokyo, Japan: 2013. pp. 6–8.
    1. Feng X., Xu X., Liu Z., Xue S., Zhang L. Novel functionalized magnetic ionic liquid green separation technology coupled with high performance liquid chromatography: A rapid approach for determination of estrogens in milk and cosmetics. Talanta. 2020;209:120542. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2019.120542. - DOI - PubMed

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.