Aluminum Stearates ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is primarily a viscosity modifier and gelling agent for oils, pigments, and wax systems. It also helps suspend powders, improve payoff, and add water resistance in color cosmetics, sunscreens, and sticks.
What does Aluminum Stearates do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is primarily a viscosity modifier and gelling agent for oils, pigments, and wax systems. It also helps suspend powders, improve payoff, and add water resistance in color cosmetics, sunscreens, and sticks.
Is Aluminum Stearates clean?
From a clean-beauty perspective, it is generally well tolerated because it is highly insoluble and has low skin penetration. The main scrutiny comes from its metal-salt identity and possible sourcing questions, rather than a strong irritation profile.
Is Aluminum Stearates sustainable?
This material is typically made from a mineral-derived metal component and a C18 fatty-acid source that may be plant, animal, or mixed origin. The fatty portion is biodegradable, while the mineral portion does not biodegrade, and supply-chain clarity can depend on the fatty-acid feedstock.
Is Aluminum Stearates COSMOS-approved?
It can be compatible with COSMOS-natural when the feedstocks and processing route meet the standard, but it is not a simple fit for COSMOS-organic claims. From a Green Chemistry view, it is acceptable but not ideal, since renewable content depends on the fatty-acid source and the inorganic portion remains outside biodegradation metrics.
How does Aluminum Stearates work chemically?
Chemically, this compound is a hydrophobic carboxylate salt built from long C18 alkyl chains coordinated to a trivalent metal center, which lets it structure nonpolar phases and coat pigment surfaces. It is used at low levels for dispersion and suspension, and at higher levels in anhydrous sticks or oil gels, with performance depending strongly on shear, heat history, and the polarity of the oil phase.
Last updated 2026-08-18