S. Skobeeva et al.

Science & Justice 62 (2022) 327–335

0
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

NYXV
NYXWV
PC2 (1%)

-1
NYXG
ENA
-2 ELI
ENU
LRS
-3
LCB
LGS
-4

-5
PC1 (99%)

1.5
NYXV
NYXWV
1
NYXG
LRS
0.5 LCB
LGS

0
PC2 (1%)

-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2
PC1 (99%)

Fig. 2. 2D PCA scores plot of lighter foundation shades (Table 1, samples 1–3, 7–9, 13–15) all together (2.1) and zoomed in part of the scores plot (2.2). The first two
Principal Components were used, both of which contributed to sample separation. Foundation sample clustering appears to be based on colour, for example, lighter
shades NYX V and NYX WV group together.

classes or none [27]. While hard analysis may lead to misclassification of
a sample, such risk could be reduced by expanding the cosmetics
database.
Sharma and colleagues [20] constructed PCA-LDA classification
model which could classify all samples with 100% accuracy, however,
only fair, light, and medium shades were used, which could have
contributed to high classification accuracy. As observed in section 3.2
and 3.3, lighter foundation shades tended to be classified more accu­
rately and had lower FPR (median 0.0% and average 0.3%) compared to
darker shades (median 0.5% and average 0.5%). Studies done on other
types of cosmetics, such as lipsticks [39–41] and vermilion (sindoor)
[42], similar level of accuracy was achieved. With lipsticks, samples that
were very similar to each other in colour, were more likely to be mis­
classified [39], similar to what was observed with NYX V, NYX WV and
LES, LEB samples. In addition, there seemed to be a variation among
different batches produced by the same manufacturer [40], which led to
lower classification accuracy (81.48%). Kaur and coworkers [41] ach­
ieved 100% classification accuracy with LDA when samples were ana­
lysed in three individual groups separated by colour (brown, pink, red).
LDA classification accuracy and sensitivity could potentially be
improved by separating the foundation database in groups by colour,
similar to studies done on lipsticks [39,41].
Type of material used as a matrix for smears did not appear to affect
classification results in a meaningful way, which was likely because the

332