BACKGROUND: Cosmetics is applied to human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness or altering appearance. Cosmetics is causing alarming adverse events to its users, yet evidence about its magnitude and cosmetic use among female employees in Ethiopia is limited. Therefore, this study was aimed at determining cosmetic use and its adverse events among female employees of Jimma University.METHOD: A cross-sectional study was done among female employees from December 2016 to January 2017. Samples of 426 participants were selected using stratified simple random sampling from all colleges, and data were collected using self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to compute proportions and logistic regression to assess the determinants of cosmetics-related adverse events.RESULTS: A total of 387 females were participated, making a 90.8% response rate. The majority (80.1%) were using at least one cosmetic product, and 39.0% of them were between 25-29 years. The majority (86.6%) of the respondents used toothpaste, lotion, lipstick, or eye makeup. Cosmetics related adverse events were experienced by 19.0% of the respondents primarily on face and hairs. Lotion and hair cosmetics were the primary perceived causes of adverse events. Employees who had monthly income between 1000 and 3000 ETB (AOR=3.4; 95% CI: 1.4-8.4), above 3000 ETB (AOR=4.7; 95% CI: 1.8-12.2) and those who used traditional cosmetics (AOR=4.5; 95% CI: 2.1-9.6) were more likely to develop adverse events.CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of the users suffered from cosmetics related adverse events. The female employees have to be aware of the rational cosmetics utilization practices to minimize adverse events.