Abstract: High performance liquid chromatography method was developed for the determination of 4-hydroxyacetophenone in cosmetics.Method:ZORBAX SB-C₁₈ column (4.6 mm×250 mm,5 μm),the mobile phase was water,methanol and sodium acetate buffer solution,the flow rate was 1.0 mL/min,the column temperature was 25 ℃,the detection wavelength was 275 nm and the injection volume was 10 μL.4-Hydroxyacetophenone has a good linear relationship in the range of 0.01-0.20 g/L with the correlation coefficient of 0.999 4 (n=5).The limit of detection is 3.37 μg/g.The recovery rates of 4-hydroxyacetophenone in toner,cleanser and moisturizing cream are 100.89%,100.29% and 100.02%,and the relative standard deviations (RSD) are 1.44%,0.56% and 1.06%,respectively.

Key words: cosmetics, high performance liquid chromatography, 4-hydroxyacetophenone, preservatives