What is it?
A cleansing agent (surfactant) made by joining glucose, a simple sugar, with lauryl alcohol, a 12-carbon fatty alcohol. It foams, helps lift away oil and dirt, adds a conditioning feel and helps thicken formulas when combined with other cleansers. It is used in shampoos, body washes, facial cleansers, bubble baths and hair dyes, and glucosides also turn up in household cleaners. It belongs to the same alkyl glucoside family as decyl and coco-glucoside.
Key information
- The CIR Expert Panel concluded in 2011 that lauryl glucoside and 18 related alkyl glucosides are safe as used when products are formulated to be non-irritating.
- Despite the shared word lauryl, it is not sodium lauryl sulfate: it is a sugar-based surfactant with no sulfate.
- It caused no allergic reactions in a human repeat patch test at 5 percent, but some people are allergic to glucosides.
More information
Lauryl glucoside is made by reacting glucose with lauryl alcohol under acidic conditions, producing a nonionic surfactant that can contain chains of several glucose units. It has no sulfate group, is not made with ethylene oxide, and its name has none of the markers the FDA links to 1,4-dioxane. The name is the only thing it shares with sodium lauryl sulfate: “lauryl” simply describes the 12-carbon fatty chain. In 2011 it was reported in 399 cosmetic products, mostly rinse-off, at up to 10 percent in rinse-off products and 5 percent in leave-on products applied to the skin.
The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel reviewed it with 18 other alkyl glucosides. In human patch tests at 2 percent and soap-chamber tests at 1 percent, lauryl glucoside was at most slightly irritating, and a repeated-insult patch test at 5 percent found neither irritation nor allergic reactions. It showed no estrogen-like activity in laboratory tests and did not harm reproduction or development in rats given up to 1 g/kg by mouth. The Panel concluded the glucosides are safe as used when formulated to be non-irritating, and cautioned that they can help other ingredients pass through the skin.
The main caution is allergy. Alkyl glucosides were named the 2017 Allergen of the Year, and dermatologists have described patients who reacted to lauryl glucoside in shower gels, lotions and sunscreen. Because reactions to more than one glucoside are common, people with a known glucoside allergy should also check labels for decyl glucoside, coco-glucoside and caprylyl/capryl glucoside.
Sources: Cosmetic Ingredient Review: Final safety assessment of decyl glucoside and other alkyl glucosides (2011); The Dermatologist: Update on alkyl glucosides (2017); FDA: 1,4-Dioxane in cosmetics, a manufacturing byproduct
