Infections Associated with the Makeup and Cosmetic Products

Skin is a suitable model for various microenvironments. Collaboration of environmental microorganisms with infant's epithelial skin cells lead to colonization of micro-flora. Depending on the description of the human immune-system many microorganisms are neutral and beneficial, although some organisms can be pathogenic. According to the character of the microenvironment, the component of dermal micro-flora is different from one place to another (Baron S, editor, 1996). For instance, Staphylococcus epidermidis is the major resident of the skin, Anaerobic diphtheroids are more popular in areas rich with sebaceous glands. Were Micrococci being not as familiar as Staphylococci and Diphtheroids. However, they are often present on ordinary skin. Streptococci, chiefly β-hemolytic streptococci, are rarely existent on normal skin. Otherwise, the predominant gram-negative organisms that found on the skin is Escherichia coli, Enterobacter, Klebsiella and Proteus spp. Nevertheless, Gram-negative bacteria is more common in the moist regions (Chiller et al., 2001).

Using make up products properly does not cause infections. However, it can cause infections if the makeup was contaminated from the skin's normal flora, contaminated brushes, cross contamination from shared make up, or expired make up. The microbes enter the body while applying the make up on the skin or by scratching the eyes with the eye pencil or the mascara. Based on previous experiments, many sites of the face have been infected, but the most common site was the eye. Usually, Conjunctivitis or pink eye happens when the normal flora of one person transmit to another by sharing make up. Multiple organisms were isolated from makeup products. The frequently isolated types from eye makeup were: Staphylococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp., and Streptococcus spp. Bacteria isolated from skin make up were: Candida spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus spp., and Bacillus spp. (reference: Leila Dadashi ) ( university of Rochester).

Cosmetic product should be effective and safe to use, especially those applied on sensitive zone. The microbial contamination represents a serious health risk for consumers worldwide when used inappropriately. The main causes of cosmetic contamination as seen in Skowron et al study (2017) are, sharing the cosmetic product with several people and using them after their expiry date. According to Dadashi & Dehghanzadeh study (2016) that we need for this type of researches. Where lack of awareness about this topic is obvious, this may be an outcome of some cosmetic manufactures that do not label the cosmetics with the production and expiration date. The majority of previous research has been implemented to assess the level of microbiological contamination of cosmetics used by several people and/or after the expiration date. However, the comparative studies were emphasizing on certain category of cosmetic either shared or expired statues separately. Except for Skowron study (2017), he focused on the both categories and this consonant with our study.

A number of questions regarding the pathogenicity and the antimicrobial susceptibly of the obtained microorganism remain to be addressed. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no prior studies have been done or published in Saudi Arabia about this topic. Therefore, this motivates us to work on this research to answer whether the use of cosmetics by several people or after the expiration date will increase the risk of it contamination and increases the threat for its users.

Beside this researches, number of surveys has been used to assess female knowledge about cosmetic product. Depending on the R.J.Ilankizhai et al survey (2016), the majority of females from different ages are using makeup product but the frequency of usage is more irregular among different groups of females according to their priorities and preferences. Also, according to the 100 females who participate in R.J.Ilankizhai survey, 57 females do not share their makeup and 43 share their makeup with one or two members. Moreover, depending on this study 52% of females are aware about the makeup expiry date whereas 28% of females do not aware about the expiry date and use their makeup until the product finishes. There is one previous survey founded in Saudi Arabia, K.Husain (2018) study about the usage of cosmetics product among university students. The survey shows that among a total of 106 students, 68.8% of them applied cosmetics daily. Furthermore, 19.8% of the students were facing health problem related to skin and eyes, otherwise 80.2% students are not. This study differs from the others by focusing on the females’ awareness about using cosmetic products from the expiry date of the product, sharing status and the way of disposal.