Synthesis of Deuterated Surrogate Standards for the Analysis of Legally Regulated Substances in Cosmetics

The presence of harmful substances in cosmetic products is regulated in most countries. In the European Union the Regulation (EC) No. 1223/2009 lays down the requirements for the marketing of cosmetic products. Among others, important families of compounds restricted in the Regulation are musks, allergenic fragrances and phthalates. To ensure product safety, improved analytical methods capable of reliably and reproducibly detecting the presence of traces of prohibited and/or restricted ingredients in raw materials and finished products are required.

For the continuous improvement of the reliability of the analytical methods developed to check the compliance of cosmetic products with the Regulation, the use of appropriate surrogate standards or contaminants (substances that are added to the samples to be analyzed to establish the recovery and the reproducibility of the quantification of the analytes) are of utmost importance. One of the best kinds of surrogate standards are isotopically labeled analogs of the analytes of interest. In this work, several synthetic methods have been developed to prepare isotopically labeled analogs of atranol, chloroatranol, di-n-octylphthalate, musk xylene, and musk ambrette, which are restricted substances in cosmetic articles.