EmollientA fatty alcoholIn every formula

Cetearyl Alcohol

Cetearyl alcohol · INCI Cetearyl alcohol

Of all the things people write to skincare brands about, this is near the top: there is alcohol in your moisturiser. It is a fair question and it has a good answer, so here it is properly rather than in a footnote.

It has alcohol in its name and nothing whatever in common with the alcohol you are worried about. It is a waxy solid, and it softens skin.

Cetearyl alcohol, the waxy fatty alcohol that thickens and softens every formula.

What it is

The word alcohol covers a very large family of molecules, and the members behave nothing alike. The ones that dry your skin are small and volatile: ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, the thing labelled alcohol denat. They evaporate quickly, and they take some of your skin's moisture with them, which is exactly why they are used in toners and hand gels and why they are worth thinking twice about in a leave-on product.

Cetearyl alcohol is not one of those. It is a fatty alcohol, made from plant oils, and it is a waxy white solid at room temperature. It does not evaporate. It cannot, it is far too big. On the skin it behaves like the other emollients in the formula: it softens, it smooths, and it helps hold moisture in. It is in the same broad chemical family as ethanol in roughly the way a whale is in the same family as a mouse.

It also does structural work. Cetearyl alcohol is much of the reason a cream has body rather than sloshing about, and it helps the emulsifier keep the oil and water together. If you like how a moisturiser feels, this is one of the ingredients you are liking.

What it does in our formulas

Two things, and neither of them is drying your skin out.

It softens the skin

Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol, which despite the name is a waxy, oily material rather than a spirit. On the skin it behaves like the emollients it sits alongside: it smooths the surface and helps slow the water escaping from it. It is a moisturising ingredient, not a drying one.

Well characterised

It gives the cream its body

It is also what stops your moisturiser being a runny liquid. It thickens the emulsion and helps the emulsifier hold everything in place, which is why it sits fairly high in the list. Most of what you feel when you rub a cream between your fingers, it is partly responsible for.

Well characterised

What the research does not show

This is the ingredient we are asked about most, and the misunderstanding is entirely reasonable. It is also complete.

Marketed as Alcohol in a moisturiser will dry your skin out

This is the fear, and it is entirely understandable, and it is misplaced. The alcohol that dries skin is the small, volatile kind: ethanol, alcohol denat, isopropyl alcohol. Those evaporate and take moisture with them. Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol, a large waxy molecule made from plant oils, solid at room temperature. It shares a word with the drying kind and essentially nothing else. It does not evaporate, it does not strip anything, and it is doing the opposite job.

Marketed as Any product with alcohol in it is one to avoid

We would gently suggest reading the whole word. Cetearyl, cetyl, stearyl, behenyl and myristyl alcohols are all fatty alcohols, all emollients, and all fine. Alcohol denat is the one to think twice about in a leave-on product. The distinction takes ten seconds to learn and it will save you from avoiding a great many perfectly good moisturisers.

So: a plant-derived, waxy emollient that softens your skin and gives the cream its texture. If you have been avoiding products because you spotted the word alcohol, we hope this helps. It is one of the easiest wins in reading a label.

On the label and in the range

Cetearyl alcohol appears in every one of our formulations, in the middle of the ingredient list, where a structural ingredient belongs. It is the only thing on our labels with the word alcohol in it, and now you know why it is there and why it is nothing to worry about. The exact percentage is published on each product page.

Is it suitable for me?

Cetearyl alcohol is one of the most widely used cosmetic ingredients in the world and has been reviewed and found safe as used by the independent expert panel that assesses these things. It suits a vegan routine and carries no restrictions under UK or EU cosmetic law. Being so widely used, it does turn up occasionally in allergy clinics, simply because it is in so many products, so if your skin reacts easily a patch test is sensible. For almost everyone, it is a soft, unremarkable, useful ingredient.

Vegan-friendlySensitive-skin suitableNo known safety concerns

Cetearyl alcohol is well tolerated, though as one of the more widely used cosmetic ingredients it does show up occasionally in allergy testing. If your skin reacts easily, patch test first.

The research behind this page

We review the published literature. We do not conduct the studies below.

Fiume MM, Heldreth B, Bergfeld WF, et al. Safety Assessment of Cetearyl Alcohol and Related Fatty Alcohols as Used in Cosmetics. Cosmetic Ingredient Review. Int J Toxicol. →
Löffler H, Happle R. Profile of irritant patch testing with detergents: sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate and alkyl polyglucoside. Contact Dermatitis 2003;48(1):26-32. →

Found in every Biotaderm formulation Shop the range