Cosmetics aren’t a relatively new invention. For at least 10,000 years, and perhaps much longer, humans have employed different chemicals to modify their look or enhance their features. Cleopatra is reported to have bathed in milk to whiten and soften her complexion, while women in Ancient Egypt employed kohl, a material containing powdered galena to darken their eyelids. By 3000 B.C., Chinese men and women were staining their fingernails with different colours depending on their social status, while Greek women employed deadly lead carbonate (PbCO3) to attain a pale complexion.

What about today?

Thousands of various cosmetic products are available, each with a unique mix of components. There are roughly 12,500 distinct chemical compounds permitted for use in the production of personal care products in the United States alone. A typical product will include somewhere between 15 and 50 components. Given that the typical woman uses between 9 and 15 personal care products per day, researchers estimate that, when combined with the usage of fragrances, women apply roughly 515 different chemicals to their skin each day.

So, what are we putting on our skin?

• If your product is packaged in a bottle, water will almost certainly be the first component listed. That’s correct, there’s nothing like good old H2O. Almost every sort of cosmetic product, including produce creams (known as โรงงานผลิตครีมสบู่ in Thai), lotions, cosmetics, deodorants, shampoos, and conditioners, are made up of water.
• The word emulsifier refers to any component that aids in the separation of dissimilar substances (such as oil and water).
• Preservatives are essential components. They are used in cosmetics to lengthen shelf life and inhibit the growth of germs like bacteria and fungus, which can degrade the product and potentially damage the consumer. Because most microorganisms live in water, preservatives must be water soluble, which makes it easier to choose which ones to employ.
• Emollients soften the skin by keeping it hydrated. They’re found in a variety of lipsticks, lotions, and other cosmetics. Emollients are made up of a variety of natural and synthetic substances, including as beeswax, olive oil, coconut oil, and lanolin, as well as petrolatum (petroleum jelly)

There are many more products we put on our skin, like thickeners, pigments, or even fragrances!

In the pursuit of beauty.

While the current scientific consensus on many of these compounds is that they are safe to use, it is up to each customer to decide whether or not to buy and use a product that contains particular substances. Cheap imports or replicas purchased online may not have gone through the required testing and evaluation procedure and may not include what they claim to contain.