Preservatives can restrict germ growing, so they are commonly added to various cosmetics in order to prolong products' life. However, preservatives are harmful to health especially when consumed in large quantities. Parabens are commonly used as preservatives for cosmetics. For health concern, many countries restrict the use of preservatives; therefore, developing an simple, fast, accurate and low detection limit analytical method for detecting parabens is in demand. The study investigates the 7 parabens by HPLC analysis. The results show that the HPLC method can analyze the 7 parabens with the detection limits all below 0.016 μg/mL. Parabens could be detected by applying the method to analyze the commercial cosmetic water.