Cetearyl Alcohol

Cetearyl alcohol is a fatty alcohol that helps give creams and lotions their smooth, creamy texture.

As it is a fatty alcohol with emollient, or skin-smoothing, properties, it helps soften and condition the skin while keeping cosmetic products stable and easy to apply.

Cetearyl alcohol can also be used as a surfactant, to help clean the skin or hair, and an emulsifier, to help ingredients within the formulation mix well so that the product does not separate.  Cetearyl alcohol is able to do this because the substance has both an oil-loving section and a water loving section.  This means it can attract both oil and water, which helps it to wash away oil-based dirt from the skin or hair, or allow oily and watery ingredients within products to mix.

Cetearyl alcohol is readily biodegradable, which means it breaks down easily in the environment.