Assessment of bacterial contamination of lipstick using pyrosequencing

As soon as they are exposed to the environment, cosmetics become contaminated with microorganisms, and this contamination accumulates with increased use. In this study, we employed pyrosequencing to investigate the diversity of bacteria found on lipstick. Bacterial DNA was extracted from 20 lipstick samples and mixed in equal ratios for pyrosequencing analysis. As a result, 105 bacterial genera were detected, four of which (Leifsonia, Methylobacterium, Streptococcus, and Haemophilus) were predominant in 92% of the 19,863 total sequence reads. Potentially pathogenic genera such as Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Escherichia, Salmonella, Corynebacterium, Mycobacterium, and Neisseria accounted for 27.6% of the 105 genera. The most commonly identified oral bacteria belonged to the Streptococcus genus, although other oral genera such as Actinomyces, Fusobacterium, Porphyromonas, and Lactobacillus were also detected.