What is it?
A fatty alcohol: a waxy solid with a 16-carbon chain. Despite the name, it is not a drying alcohol like the ethanol in hand sanitizer. It is used in creams, lotions, conditioners, lipsticks and makeup as an emollient that softens skin and helps prevent dryness, and to thicken and stabilize emulsions. It is also used in medicines as an emulsifying and stiffening agent.
Key information
- The CIR Expert Panel concluded in 1988 that cetyl alcohol is safe as a cosmetic ingredient and later reaffirmed that conclusion.
- It is a fatty alcohol, not a drying alcohol like ethanol.
- U.S. FDA regulations allow synthetic long-chain fatty alcohols, including cetyl alcohol, in food.
- Allergy to it is uncommon but has been reported, mostly in people with damaged skin such as leg ulcers.
More information
Cetyl alcohol (1-hexadecanol) is a straight-chain alcohol with 16 carbon atoms. The CIR describes two production routes: high-pressure catalytic hydrogenation of fatty acids, and the Ziegler process, which builds the chain from ethylene. The label does not say which was used. It is one of the two main components of cetearyl alcohol, which we rate Green Light.
The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel concluded in 1988 that cetyl alcohol is safe as a cosmetic ingredient in the present practices of use, and later reaffirmed that conclusion. Its oral toxicity is very low: in fasted rats the lethal dose for half the animals was above 8.2 g per kilogram. In clinical irritation and sensitization tests, products containing 1 to 8.4 percent cetyl alcohol produced no substantial evidence of irritation or allergy. The review notes that such long-chain alcohols serve in lotions as emollients, emulsion stabilizers and thickeners, and that cetyl alcohol helps prevent drying and chapping.
Allergy is uncommon. In one clinic series, 11.2 percent of 330 patients with leg ulcers or eczema reacted to 30 percent cetyl alcohol, but the authors said this was not consistent with other studies and may have reflected the creams those patients had been given; another study found 2 reactions among 1,664 consecutive patients. In a 1989 rabbit-ear survey, a very sensitive test, it scored 2 of 5 for pore clogging.
On labels, cetyl alcohol is not a sign of a drying alcohol. If you want to avoid ethanol, look for “alcohol” or “alcohol denat.” instead.
Sources: Journal of the American College of Toxicology (1988), via Cosmetic Ingredient Review: Final report on the safety assessment of cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, isostearyl alcohol, myristyl alcohol and behenyl alcohol; Cosmetic Ingredient Review: Quick reference table of safety conclusions (September 2022); Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists (1989): Comedogenicity and irritancy of commonly used ingredients in skin care products
