Heavy metals refer to metals with a density of more than 4.5g/cm3, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt, chromium, mercury, cadmium, etc. Arsenic is a non-metallic element, but its properties are like metal elements. According to its toxicity, for the convenience of research, arsenic is often included in the range of heavy metals in the cosmetics industry. The heavy metals in cosmetics mainly refer to mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium.

If products with excessive heavy metals are used for a long time, heavy metals will accumulate in the body and cause harm to the human body.

Sources of heavy metals in cosmetics

1. Cosmetic raw materials: some cosmetics contain plant extracts, which may absorb and enrich a certain number of heavy metals from water, air and soil in nature during the process of plant growth. When preparing plant extracts, heavy metals will inevitably be introduced into cosmetics.Some cosmetics have a high mineral content, such as foundation, eye shadow and other products.

2. Illegal addition: lead, mercury and other heavy metals may play a whitening effect on the skin. In the production of cosmetics, some illegal merchants may add heavy metals to them in order to maximize profits, the most common ones are lead, mercury and arsenic.

3. Packaging and transportation process of cosmetics: precipitation and migration of heavy metals in packaging materials may also lead to excessive content of heavy metal ions in cosmetics.

Heavy metals in cosmetics

1. Heavy metals in makeup

Daily use of color makeup products, lipstick, mascara, eyebrow pencil and so on generally contain very trace heavy metals.Lip cosmetics, such as lipstick and lip gloss, may enter the body directly through the digestive tract, while eye shadow, used around the thinnest part of the skin, contains a variety of substances, including heavy metals, that may be more easily absorbed or irritate the eyelids and irritate the eyes.Powder foundation, concealer liquid and other silty products often use kaolin, talc powder, zinc oxide and carbonate, may also introduce some heavy metal elements.

2. Heavy metals in hair cosmetics

Heavy metals may also be detected in various types of hair cosmetics such as conditioners, emollients, dyes, and shampoos.The use of lead and its compounds in hair cosmetics (including hair dyes) is prohibited in Europe, and the FDA allows the use of lead acetate in hair dyes to turn hair color black with a maximum lead content of 0.6% (w/v) in the final product.In addition to lead acetate, other heavy metal compounds are less present in hair cosmetics.

We, Anhui Newman fine chemicals Co., ltd, is the top leading manufacturer of carbomer and polyacrylic acid. As a water-soluble rheological modifier, carbomer has been extensively applied used in personal care products and pharmaceuticals, and industrial fields for more than 70 years due to its efficient thickening and suspension performance, high safety, and no irritation to human body and skin.

we have cosmetics grade carbomers, including traditional carbomer such as  carbomer 970C, carbomer 960, carbomer 981, carbomer 941, but also improved carbomer such as NM-Carbomer 20, 2020, carbomer 21, 1342, carbomer 1382 with INCI Name: Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Cross polymer. Also, liquid carbomer such as NM-Carbomer SF-1, with INCI name: acrylates copolymer.

For the control of heavy metals ，we have tested and checked every production unit,  from raw materials used in production, production process, packaging and so on. To ensure that the heavy metal content of our Newman Carbomer not only meets the industry standards, and the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (ChP.), the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP/NF), the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph.Eur.), the British Pharmacopoeia (BP), the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP), the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JPE) and relevant regulations.
Anhui Newman have been approved by ISO9001 quality system, ISO 14001 environmental system and ISO 45001 occupational health and safety system certification in 2015. In January 2023, we successfully passed the assessment conducted by Eco Vadis, a global social responsibility assessment company, actively fulfilled the SA8000 social responsibility standard, reduced pollution emissions, rationally used resources, and ensured that the environment continued to meet the standards. And we constantly improved the construction of the company's social responsibility management system, and effectively fulfilled social responsibilities.

The harm of heavy metal in cosmetics to human body

1: Mercury

Mercury in cosmetics is mainly in the form of mercuric chloride and mercuric sulfide.Studies have proved that mercury and its compounds can cause dermatitis, papules, blisters, ulceration and other phenomena, but also through the skin barrier into all tissues and organs of the body, causing chronic poisoning.

2. Arsenic

Arsenic and its compounds are toxic.Long-term use of cosmetics with high arsenic content can cause skin diseases such as dermatitis, pigmentation, and eventually skin cancer.

3. Lead

The lead contained in cosmetics is mainly lead oxide, which is a toxic heavy metal that is extremely harmful to human body. Long-term use of cosmetics with lead exceeding the standard can easily lead to skin sensitivity, dryness, itching, pigmentation and so on.

4. Cadmium

Cadmium is present in the flash zinc that is often used in powder and foundation, and it is often introduced into cosmetics as an impurity.Cadmium and its compounds are toxic to some extent.Studies have shown that long-term use of cosmetics containing cadmium and its compounds can cause chronic poisoning.

Heavy metal quality control standards

According to the requirements of China's Technical Specification for the Safety of Cosmetics (2015 edition), the relevant limit standards of heavy metals in cosmetics are lead ≤10mg/kg, mercury ≤1mg/kg, arsenic ≤2mg/kg, and cadmium ≤5mg/kg respectively.