Eww–something you may not have thought of…

Tainted Makeup Revealed

Unclean Hands To Blame

The makeup counter is where you try it before you buy it.

The counters concern Rowan University biological science professor Elizabeth Brooks.

“You can go and help yourself, which is a convenient thing for women, but it also means no one is policing it,” said Brooks.

Brooks led a two-year study of hundreds of free of makeup samples. She found contamination common after busy shopping days.

“We found 100 percent of the samples were contaminated,” she said.

The samples were tainted with E. coli bacteria.

“Andwe associate this with human feces,” said Brooks. “I’ve seen it, I’m sure you’ve seen it. People leave the stall of the bathroom and don’twash their hands. These are the same individuals that are trying onthat makeup, and then we come along.”

Brooks said the germs shefound won’t do much harm because you don’t eat makeup. But you do putit near your eyes, where there is a threat.

“Essentially bacterial pink eye, because you’ve introduced that bacteria into your eye.”

Wecollected ten eye makeup samples, and found two contaminated samplesand a total of three different germs. Among the pathogens wasstaphylococcus aureus.

“Under the right circumstances it is an extremely toxic species of stapholoccoocus,” said microbiologist Rick Billups.