Background: An essential step in ensuring the toxicological safety of cosmetic or personal care products is the evaluation of the skin sensitizing potential of product ingredients.
Objective: We used a standardized protocol from cosmetic trade industry and consumer safety groups to evaluate the sensitization potential of ingredients in 3 commercially available cleansing conditioners.
Methods: A total of 33 ingredients were evaluated. Each ingredient underwent (1) dermatological evaluation, (2) in silico analysis for irritation and sensitization potential, and (3) a literature evaluation to determine risk of sensitization. Consumer exposure level was compared with the weight-of-evidence no-expected sensitization induction level for the constituent. If a no-expected sensitization induction level for a specific ingredient was not available, the dermal sensitization threshold approach was used. A margin of safety was calculated for each constituent.
Results: The margins of safety for all evaluated ingredients in the cleansing conditioners were greater than 1.
Conclusions: This analysis indicates that exposure to the individual ingredients present in these cleansing conditioners would not be expected to induce dermal sensitization in a consumer under the examined exposure scenario.