Data Study on Cosmetic Products
The skills the author demoed here can be learned through taking Data Science with Machine Learning bootcamp with NYC Data Science Academy.
The following blog post accompanies this interactive web application, exploring ingredients in cosmetics sold on www.ulta.com.
What are you putting on your face?
Whatever your daily grooming regimen entails, data records shows it surely involves off-the-shelf cosmetic products: cleanser, shampoo, fragrance, makeup, moisturizer, sunscreen, the list goes on. But what are these products made of? How much do they differ by brand? Which brands produce products with potentially undesirable ingredients?
To explore this, I took a look at over 11,000 products listed on www.ulta.com. Check the data out yourself with the interactive web app below:
https://lejulie.shinyapps.io/exploring_beauty_products/
This data was aggregated using scrapy. The app was built using R Shiny. You can check out the code on github.
Commonly scrutinized ingredients
There are a host of common ingredients in cosmetics that have come under fire for allegedly posing health or environmental hazards. This analysis explores the prevalence of a few of these ingredients:
- Coal Tar Dyes
- Formaldehyde
- Fragrance
- Palm Oil
- Parabens
- Siloxanes
- Sulfates
- Sunscreen Chemicals
Some more information on how each was identified and the alleged hazards they each pose is available below.
Note: This app does not investigate claims that any of these ingredients are actually nefarious; it merely identifies which products contain them.
Data on common ingredients
Of the list of 11,230 products examined, 9,067 (81%) contained at least one of the above ingredients. When we break this out by family of ingredients, we see that fragrance is by far the most common (present in 5,822 ingredients), followed by coal tar dyes (4,346).
When we split this out by top level category, we see that most of these products are hair, skincare, and makeup products.
It's unsurprising that fragrance is the most common ingredient. According to the FDA:
If a cosmetic is marketed on a retail basis to consumers, such as in stores, on the Internet, or person-to-person, it must have a list of ingredients. In most cases, each ingredient must be listed individually. But under U.S. regulations, fragrance and flavor ingredients can be listed simply as “Fragrance” or “Flavor.”
Here's why: the FDA requires the list of ingredients under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA). This law is not allowed to be used to force a company to tell “trade secrets.” Fragrance and flavor formulas are complex mixtures of many different natural and synthetic chemical ingredients, and they are the kinds of cosmetic components that are most likely to be “trade secrets.” To learn more, see the regulation on cosmetic ingredient labeling and the Federal Register notice for this regulation, which addresses “trade secrets” and the FPLA.
Seeing coal tar dyes predominantly in makeup also seem reasonable, as pigments are a crucial component of makeup.
Data on top offending brands
The majority of brands -- 347 out of 383 -- have at least one product with at least one commonly scrutinized ingredient. Below are the brands with the highest number of products that meet this criteria.
It's not surprising that Ulta makes the top of the list, since the brand is the most represented one on its own site. We can also look at the brands ordered by the proportion of their products which contain at least one scrutinized ingredient (only brands with 50+ total products are considered below).
Some of these brands, such as Klorane, Yes To, and Hempz are a little more surprising because they market themselves heavily as "natural" brands.
Digging in a bit, we see that Yes To actually addresses the presence of fragrance in their products on their website.
Yes To's fragrance is a mix of essential oils, natural aromatic chemicals and other synthetic ingredients that are approved by RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials). The synthetic ingredients are used when there are no natural alternatives to create the scent.
Exploring Data
To dive deeper into your favorite beauty brands, check out the explorer here. To get a look at the underlying code, check out the repository on github.
Ingredients explored in the app
| Ingredient Family | Perceived Hazards | Ingredients in This Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Coal Tar Dyes | Coal Tar Dyes are synthetic dyes produced from coal tar. They are common in cosmetics, food products, textiles, and other household products. | Ingredients starting with: CI , FD&C, and D&C, P-Phenylenediamine |
| Formaldehyde | Formaldehyde, is an organic compound that can be harmful after prolonged exposure. | Formaldehyde |
| Fragrance | In the US, flavor and fragrance ingredients may not have to be explicitly listed and may instead be represented simply as 'fragrance' to protect trade secrets. However, some people may exhibit sensitivity to some of these unlisted ingredients. | Fragrance, Parfum |
| Palm Oil | Palm oil is an oil used in food products and cosmetics which is associated with environmental issues such as deforestation. | Palm Oil |
| Parabens | Parabens are commonly used preservatives in cosmetics. There may be concerns that prolonged exposure to high concentrations of parabens could have an impact on human health. | Paraben, Alkyl Parahydroxy Benzoates |
| Siloxanes | Siloxanes are commonly used in cosmetics for conditioning and increasing softness. However, they may pose some environmental concerns. | Cyclotetrasiloxane, Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, Cylcopentasiloxane, Polydimethylsiloxan |
| Sulfates | Sulfates such as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) are common lathering agents in cleansers and toothpastes, which may be harsh on skin or hair. | Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sls, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sles, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, Sodium Lauroyl Isoethionate, Sodium Lauroyl Taurate, Sodium Cocoyl Isoethionate, Sodium Lauroyl Methyl Isoethionate, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate |
| Sunscreen Chemicals | Some ingredients common in sunscreen, such as oxybenzone and octinoxate, may pose an environmental hazard to coral reefs. | Benzophenone, Paba, Avobenzone, Homosalate, Ethoxycinnmate, Oxybenzone |
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