The best way to protect yourself from lead in traditional eyeliners is to avoid them. But for people who come from communities where they’re widely used, this isn’t a simple solution. “These are very culturally ingrained products,” says Paromita Hore, PhD, MPH, director of environmental exposure assessment and education at the New York City Health Department and lead author of the Pediatrics study.
Culturally informed education can make a difference. In a 2025 study, published in PLOS Global Public Health, researchers tested traditional eyeliners purchased in Washington’s King County, or collected from homes of people who used them and found that some contained very high levels of lead. The researchers also interviewed members of communities who frequently use such products. They found that more than 90 percent of traditional eyeliner users said they didn’t realize that the products could contain lead, and many said they were open to switching to safer, comparable products.
“It’s not like they were using these eyeliners despite knowing that they were unsafe,” says Aesha Mokashi, MS, one of the study’s authors and a health and environmental investigator with the Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County. “They just didn’t know.” (Mokashi consulted with Pure Earth on its study but was not involved in the actual research.)
Nontraditional eyeliners may be less likely to contain high levels of lead. In the King County study, the median lead level in the nontraditional eyeliners the researchers tested was just 0.06 ppm, with the highest level being 1,800 ppm. For the traditional eyeliners, though, the median lead level was 10 ppm, and the sample with the highest concentration had 840,000 ppm—or 84 percent lead.
Ultimately, the problem isn’t the practice of using traditional eyeliners, Hankir says. “I think it would be tragic for us to give up these traditions because of these impure compositions in the market,” she says. Consumers who don’t want to forgo this important cultural or religious practice (or others who wish to use traditional eyeliners) can use these tips to reduce their risk.
Wash your hands. This is always a good move before and after applying makeup, but it’s especially important if you do choose to use traditional eyeliners. It helps reduce the risk of accidental ingestion if you touch your face or food.
Be savvy about terminology. In Pure Earth’s testing, products with more than 100,000 ppm of lead included samples labeled as kohl, surma, and kajal. But other research has found that kajal, if not totally risk-free, may be less likely to contain high levels of lead than kohl or surma.
For example, Paromita Hore at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene says that in her Pediatrics study, products with sky-high lead levels were labeled “kohl” or “surma,” while those labeled “kajal” were much lower. Hore, who grew up in South Asia, says that the kajal she was familiar with from her childhood was usually made with soot, not lead galena.
The King County study found similar results. While a few samples of kajal did have lead levels above 100,000 ppm, most didn’t, and the average levels were much lower for kajal products than for kohl or surma.
Prioritize ingredient transparency. Hankir advises caution with products that don’t have straightforward lists of their ingredients. “I would be wary of an imported product that doesn’t have packaging or ingredient labels or any regulatory information,” she says.
Even in products with ingredients lists, the use of vague terms—such as “kohl powder” or “black surma stone”—is another red flag, according to Mokashi. She says that in her research, eyeliners with nonspecific ingredient names tended to be very high in lead.
Don’t rely on a “lead-free” label. Pure Earth’s study wasn’t the only one to find that products specifically advertised as “lead-free” sometimes had very high levels of lead. The King County study also found extremely high levels of lead in such products. One product had 610,000 ppm lead, or 61 percent.
Be wary of powder eyeliners. The products with the highest concentrations of lead in Pure Earth’s tests were powders. Just two of the 18 powder samples contained less than 10 ppm of lead. The others tested between 11 to 380,000 ppm. In contrast, the 38 cream eyeliner samples ranged from nondetectable levels of lead to 68 ppm; more than half of them contained 10 ppm or less.
Make your own. The state of Washington’s Department of Ecology, as part of its efforts to help people avoid lead-contaminated traditional eyeliners, has shared a few simple recipes using food-grade activated charcoal, oil, and sometimes wax. Check out its information sheet (PDF) and tutorial video for details.
