ABSTRACT
The microbial spoilage of cosmetics has been reported in the literature for many years [1-3]. One of the first reported incidents [4] is the death by tetanus of four babies in New Zealand in 1946, the vector being a contaminated talcum powder. The same vector was the source of two other cases of tetanus in an English hospital [5]. Since the 1960s, cases of cosmetic-induced infections were described in parallel with the awareness of the problem for topical drugs [6-12]. The isolated organisms were Gram-negative bacteria from the genus Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Serratia, and Pseudomonas [13,14]. The organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a particularly virulent hospital pathogen transmitted by eye cosmetics, led to cases of infections and even blindness [15-20], or folliculitis from sponges [21]. Studies were then conducted to evaluate the importance of the problem [2229] and to investigate the primary contaminating sources such as raw materials, personnel, water, and packaging, as well as secondary sources, such as the consumer [30].
