Glyceryl Caprylate
Glyceryl Caprylate · INCI Glyceryl Caprylate
Glyceryl caprylate is made from glycerin and caprylic acid, both from plant oils. It softens the skin, and it supports the preservative in every formula.
An emollient first, with a supporting role alongside the preservative.
What it is
Glyceryl caprylate is made by joining glycerin to caprylic acid, both from plant oils. On the skin it is an emollient. It softens, and it helps the formula spread and feel the way it does. That alone would earn it a place.
It also supports the preservative, which is sodium benzoate working with gluconolactone at the pH sodium citrate holds. It could not preserve a cream by itself, but its support means the preservative can be gentler than it would otherwise need to be. That is part of why these formulas suit reactive skin.
A preservative stays on the skin after the cream goes on, and the skin is where the microbiome lives. No study has yet tested this combination on the skin microbiome. We chose the gentlest system available to us.
What it does in our formulas
Glyceryl caprylate softens the skin and supports the preservative in every formula.
It softens the skin
It smooths the surface, improves how the formula spreads, and is part of why a cream feels like a cream rather than a paste.
Well characterisedIt supports the preservative
The preservative is sodium benzoate working with gluconolactone, at the pH sodium citrate holds. Glyceryl caprylate is not part of it, and could not preserve a cream alone. It supports the preservative, so the preservative can be gentler than it would otherwise need to be, and a gentler preservative is one of the reasons this range suits reactive skin.
Well characterisedWhat the research does not show
Two claims get made around ingredients like this one, and neither holds up.
Marketed as A natural preservative, so the product is preservative-free
Marketed as It is microbiome-friendly
On the label and in the range
Glyceryl caprylate appears in every one of our formulations, toward the end of the ingredient list, at a low level. Read it alongside the sodium benzoate and the gluconolactone, which together make up the preservative, and the sodium citrate that holds the pH. Glyceryl caprylate supports that preservative. Each of them has its own page here.
Is it suitable for me?
Glyceryl caprylate is well tolerated, suits a vegan routine, and carries no restrictions under UK or EU cosmetic law. Supporting the preservative is one of the gentler ways to help preserve a cosmetic. The alternative is a harsher preservative at a higher level.
As with anything new, if your skin reacts easily it is worth patch testing first.
The research behind this page
We review the published literature. We do not conduct the studies below.
- Pinto D, Ciardiello T, Franzoni M, Pasini F, Giuliani G, Rinaldi F. Effect of commonly used cosmetic preservatives on skin resident microflora dynamics. Sci Rep 2021;11:8695. (Industry-funded; peer-reviewed laboratory study of how preservatives shift resident skin bacteria.) →
- Fiume MM, Bergfeld WF, Belsito DV, et al. Safety Assessment of Monoglyceryl Monoesters as Used in Cosmetics. Int J Toxicol 2020;39(3 Suppl):93S-126S. →