Focus

Forever Chemicals Are in Your Makeup. They Go Through Your Skin.

The FDA identified PFAS in over 1,700 cosmetic products in January 2026. Most of those products do not disclose it on the label. And new research confirms the chemicals do not stay on the surface.

Think about what you put on your face this morning. Moisturizer. Foundation. Mascara. Maybe a lip product. Products applied close to your eyes, your mouth, the thinnest skin on your face. You did it in two minutes without thinking about it, the same way you have done it hundreds of times before. What you were not thinking about is that more than 1,700 personal care products currently on the market contain PFAS, the class of synthetic chemicals that do not break down in the body or the environment, and that new research has confirmed cross the skin barrier and enter the bloodstream. The skin was supposed to be the protection. It is not.

The products most affected are the ones applied closest to the face: waterproof mascaras, transfer-resistant foundations, liquid lipsticks, lip balms, eyebrow products, moisturizers, sunscreens, shampoos, and nail polishes. The FDA found that foundation, mascara, and eye and lip products carry the highest concentrations. These are products applied daily, often multiple times, directly to skin that is already thin and permeable around the eyes and mouth.

The skin does not block them

The assumption built into the cosmetics industry’s safety framework was that the skin acts as a barrier. Researchers at the University of Birmingham tested that assumption directly. They applied 17 different PFAS compounds to three-dimensional human skin tissue models and measured what passed through. Fifteen of the 17 compounds were absorbed. For PFOA, one of the most studied PFAS chemicals, 13.5 percent of the applied dose crossed the skin barrier and entered the bloodstream. With longer exposure time, that figure rose to 38 percent. For shorter-chain PFAS compounds, the ones increasingly substituted into products on the assumption they are safer, absorption rates reached nearly 60 percent.

A separate study published in Environment International in 2022 confirmed this in a human volunteer, measuring transdermal absorption of PFOA from a sunscreen in real skin, not a lab model. The chemicals move through. They accumulate. They do not degrade. The body has no pathway to eliminate them efficiently, which is why PFAS are detectable in the blood of approximately 97 percent of Americans tested and why they are now found in breast milk, umbilical cord blood, and the tissues of people who have never worked near an industrial facility.

The label does not tell you

A 2021 study by researchers at Notre Dame, Indiana University, and the University of Toronto tested 231 cosmetic products and found that all 29 products directly tested for PFAS contained at least four individual PFAS compounds, with one product containing 13. PFAS appeared on the ingredient label of only 8 percent of products tested. The rest contained them without disclosure, either as unlisted intentional ingredients or as byproducts of manufacturing. There is currently no federal regulation requiring PFAS disclosure in cosmetics and no federal ban on their use.

When they do appear on labels, they are listed under names most people do not recognize: polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), perfluorodecalin, perfluorononyl dimethicone, perfluorohexane, perfluorooctyl triethoxysilane. The FDA found insufficient toxicological data to determine the safety of most PFAS ingredients in cosmetics. That is not a statement about safety. It is a statement about what has and has not been tested, and who bears the cost of not knowing.

How to check what you are using

The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database at ewg.org/skindeep rates personal care products for PFAS and other chemical concerns. You can search by product or brand. It is free. Prioritize checking the products you use most frequently and those applied near the eyes and mouth, where absorption is highest. Anything marketed as long-wear, transfer-resistant, or waterproof is a candidate for PFAS content.

The fact that this requires a third-party database rather than a readable label is the story. The chemicals are documented. The absorption is documented. The absence of a requirement to tell you is a policy choice, not a gap in knowledge. These products are applied to the face, daily, by people who were told the skin would protect them. It does not.