What is growing in your make-up?

If you’ve ever wondered what bacteria horrors could be lurking in your make-up bag, that is exactly what 11-year-old Sinead O’Dowd investigated for her project which has reached the national final of the Intel Mini Scientist Competition, taking place in the Helix, Dublin, tomorrow.

Sinead, a fifth class pupil in Scoil Bhríde, Cannistown, came up with the idea of testing what bacteria is in make-up.
Her project ‘What’s growing in Make-up?’ was chosen by Intel employees as the winning project in her school to go forward to the regional final, and Sinead’s was one of 18 projects to make it to the national final of the competition.
Two other Meath projects have also made it to the final - ‘Plant Power’ from St Nicholas PS, Longwood, and ‘Fantastic Fudge’ from Scoil Mhuire, Moynalvey.
Sinead tested blusher, mascara, lipstick, lip gloss and foundation and found that mascara contained the most bacteria and blusher had the least. She also tested products that were in date and out-of-date and explained there was a lot more bacteria in out-of-date products.

“Mascara that was in date had 22 colonies and the out-of-date one had 238,” said Sinead. She also looked at the PAO (period after opening) and did a survey on how many people were aware of it. That’s the little symbol -a jar with open lid- which has a number of months beside it.

One company, Oriflame, a Swedish company with a facility in Bray, invited Sinead to spend a day with their microbiologists. “We did tests where they put some bacteria into the products to test them and if the preservatives are working. I also got to make some lipstick and soap. It was an amazing experience. I spent the whole day there, it was very nice of them.”
Sinead is very excited to attend the final tomorrow and will be accompanied by her parents Pat and Rita, sister Ciara, friend Kate and her principal Maura Durkin who said they were “absolutely delighted” with how well Sinead had done. She explained they had only got involved in the competition two years ago and that all pupils in fourth, fifth and sixth classes prepared projects for the competition.