It is to provide a production method of zinc oxide powder excellent in UV protection ability and transparency and to provide cosmetics containing the same. The fine particle zinc oxide powder is produced by subjecting either an aqueous solution containing both a water-soluble zinc salt and a carboxylic acid or an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble zinc carboxylate to pH adjustment with an alkali carbonate agent and aging the resulting mixture without calcining. The alkali carbonate agent may be 0.1 to 2 mol/L aqueous solution and the carboxylate group is 1 to 5 times in moles with respect to zinc. The pH adjustment can be carried out by dropwise addition of the alkali carbonate aqueous solution at 0.5 to 5 mL/min per 100 mL of either the aqueous solution containing both the water-soluble zinc salt and the carboxylic acid or the aqueous solution containing the water-soluble zinc carboxylate.