Microbial contamination of eye make up product: Herbal Mascara a concern

Abstract

Eyes are one of the most importantfeatures when it comes to beauty. Variouscosmetics are used to enhance their level ofattractiveness like mascaras, eyeliners, eyeshadow among many more. Out of theseabove products mascara is the one whichamplifies the eyelashes to look thick andlong thus providing people with glamorous look to the eyes. But these cosmetic products must be safe to use by the consumers. In our study different brands of 15 mascara samples were randomly purchased from various cosmetic shops from suburbs of Delhi and examined microbiologically as per Indian Standard on cosmetics. Quantitativeresults of total microbial count ranged from 102 to 108 cfu g-1, whereas, in case of Yeast and Mould it was from 60 to 107 cfu g-1. Presence of microbial contamination in all examined mascara samples was found to be very highas compared to fungal count. Total microbialcount, yeast & mould count exceeded theexpected standard by considerable margin.Out of the 15 samples Pseudomonasaeruginosa was found in 6 samples whereasStaphylococcus aureus was found in 4samples. However, none of the mascarasamples were contaminated with Escherichiacoli. The presence of Pseudomonasaeruginosa, Candida albicans andaureus was found to be 40%,47% and 27% respectively. Staphylococcusaureus is an organism associated withcommon infections caused due to anydamage to the eye balls. Whereas,Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the mostcommon agent in eye infections likeconjunctivitis, keratitis and opthalmitis. Contamination in mascara may be a result ofpoor hygiene, contaminated raw materials orthe susceptibility of the ingredients present inthe cosmetic eye preparations.