Objective To understand the sanitary quality of cosmetics in Wuhan. Methods The sanitary quality of cosmetics including hair care cosmetics, skin care cosmetics, beauty cosmetics, perfumes and cosmetics for special use sampled from 23 cosmetics manufactures and 15 large-scale whole-salers and retail traders in Wuhan were examined during 1996～2001. Results The annual qualified rates of cosmetics were 93.49%～98.69% in 1996～2000. It was 95.65% for hair care cosmetics, 92.41% for skin care cosmetics, 98.13% for beauty cosmetics, 100% for purfumes and 95.56% for special use cosmetics respectively. They also were 93.62%～98.69% for microbiological indexes and 99.17%～100% for chemical indexes respectively. The total count of bacteria of skin care cosmetics seriously exceeded the related sanitary standard. Conclusion The main problem of the sanitary quality of cosmetics was the microbiological pollution.