Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I wanted to do a science project with bacteria and cosmetics. I don't want to do the simple experiment of testing the bacterial growth of different products, so I was wondering which cosmetics you suggest to test for a little more sophisticated project. Also, is it possible to be able to count the bacterial colonies even with the pigmented makeup streaked on the agar?

Thanks so much!

This sounds like an interesting project. I notice that the Subject title is "Bacteria in Makeup" but the topic was acne treatment. Had you planned on testing cosmetics as well as acne products? How are you going to obtain the makeup? Makeup that is new will likely have no bacterial growth. Are you going to sample from different sources? Use your own that has been used for awhile? There are so many variables for this approach....length of time product has been used, person who has used it, body part it comes into contact with, brand of cosmetic. It seems like there could be a lot of variables which will not make for a good experiment. Alternately, testing acne products might be easier to control. You could always grow bacteria and then treat with different acne products to see which are most effective at controlling bacteria.

I do think it would be possible to count the colonies even with the makeup streaked on...but there is really only one way to figure it out (it makes sense to test it before you design a whole project around it....bacteria grow so quickly it would only take a day or two to figure it out).

Hello there,

I think you have a pretty interesting idea there--I have never thought about linking bacteria with makeup! How did you become interested in this topic, and what are some questions that intrigue you? For example, what kind of cosmetic products are you thinking about testing? Like the previous expert mentioned, there's acne treatments/creams, but there are a lot of different makeup products in addition to those. Are you interested in testing whether certain types of makeup could be toxic to bacteria living on the skin (in other words, do certain makeup products have antimicrobial effects)? Let us know what kind of questions interest you, and we can help you brainstorm more project ideas!

Best,
Connie