Simultaneous determination of glycol ethers and their acetates in cosmetics by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

A gas chromatography with mass spectrometry method was developed for the simultaneous determination of ten kinds of glycol ethers and their acetates in cosmetics. The samples were extracted with methanol/ethyl acetate (80:20, v/v), further treated with vortex and ultrasound, and analyzed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. The concentration of each analyte was calibrated by the external standard method. Under the optimal conditions, the analytes showed linear relationship in the range of 0.05–25 mg/L with determination coefficients larger than 0.9987. The limits of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.09–0.59 and 0.31–1.95 mg/kg, respectively. The average recoveries of three spiked levels were 80.2–105.4% with intra‐ and interday precisions of 1.1–6.3 and 1.9–6.5%, respectively. Method validation from different labs confirmed the satisfactory recoveries and precisions. This method shows advantages of simple, high sensitivity, and high recovery, which can be applied to the detection of glycol ethers and acetates in cosmetics.