Source · product
Cosmetics
Part of: Personal care products
Also: make-up, beauty products, nail products, hair products, fragranced products
Products applied to the skin, hair and nails for appearance rather than cleaning. They are used close to the face, often as sprays, in the smallest and least ventilated room of the dwelling — which makes a small mass of product a substantial short exposure.
Where it comes from indoors
What distinguishes cosmetics from other consumer sources is geometry rather than quantity. The product is applied within centimetres of the breathing zone, frequently as an aerosol that puts part of it into the air rather than onto the skin, and the room is a bathroom — small, often with no openable window, and ventilated by an extract fan that may or may not be running.
The emissions follow the formulation. Fragrance contributes terpenes and other volatile compounds; silicone ingredients contribute siloxanes, which surveys find in nearly every dwelling where such products are used; solvents in nail products contribute acetone and esters at high concentration for the minutes of application.
Heat adds a separate case. Hair styling appliances raise product and hair to temperatures at which both emit, generating particles as well as gases — a short, intense event that a daily average conceals entirely.
What the studies report
| Linked to | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) | mean 1485.5 | — · beauty salon | measurement campaign in beauty salons: passive samplers in the workers' breathing zones determining volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulfur dioxide, with outdoor background levels measured for reference | F-1578 Beauty under the scrutiny: comparative assessment of volatil… (2026) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Cosmetics. Coridum Knowledge G-0204, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0204/