Personal care products

Personal care products are consumer products which are applied on various external parts of the body such as skin, hair, nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as teeth and mucous membrane of the oral cavity, in order to make them clean, protect them from harmful germs and keep them in good condition.

Toiletries form a narrower category of personal care products which are used for basic hygiene and cleanliness as a part of a daily routine.

Most of the personal care products are rinsed off immediately after use, such as shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, shower gels, etc.

A few personal care products, however, are left on the applied surface such as moisturizing cream, sunscreen, etc.

The global market size of the personal care products industry is several hundred billion US Dollars (as of early 2020s).

They remove dirt, excess oil and other impurities from the surface of the body and improve a person's overall cleanliness.

Sun care products include lotions, creams, sprays, gels, oils and sticks that act as a sunscreen or a sunblock.

Personal care products can come in different physical forms such as liquid solutions, solid bars and sticks, semi-solid or emulsion-based mixtures, powders, aerosols, oils, gels, scrubs and sheets.

They may contain colorants, fragrances, emollients, surfactants, humectants, thickeners, stabilizers, preservatives, pH adjusters and pH buffers, silicones, chelating agents, film-forming agents, natural extracts, antioxidants, disinfectants and antimicrobials along with the actual product.

In addition, there are personal care tools such as toothbrushes, hairbrushes and combs, manual razors and electric shavers, tweezers, nail clippers and files, sponges, pads, scrubs, etc.

[2] The European Union has declared pharmaceutical residues with the potential of contamination of water and soil to be "priority substances".