Development of a cosmetic cream certified reference material: Certification of lead, mercury and arsenic mass fractions in cosmetic cream

•A cosmetic cream reference material was certified for its toxic element contents.•The homogeneity and stability of lead, mercury and arsenic were investigated.•A multiple spiking approach was employed to simplify the analytical procedure.•This CRM will be useful for method validation or as a quality control material.

This paper describes the development of a cosmetic cream certified reference material containing lead, mercury and arsenic. High accuracy exact matching isotope dilution mass spectrometry or standard addition method was used for the assignment of certified values and long-term stability study. A multiple spiking approach was employed to simplify the analytical procedure. The metal contents were found to be homogenous and stable for a period of 14 days at 46 °C (short-term stability) and over a period of at least 6 months at ambient temperature (long-term stability). A metrological approach was used to consider potential biases to achieve appropriate accuracy for the certified mass fraction values. The expanded relative uncertainties at 95% confidence level for lead (26.14 mg/kg ± 0.76 mg/kg), mercury (2.956 mg/kg ± 0.092 mg/kg) and arsenic (5.25 mg/kg ± 0.28 mg/kg) were 2.90%, 3.11% and 5.38%, respectively.

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