Ammonium Polyacrylate ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is mainly used as a viscosity builder, stabilizer, and suspending agent in gels, creams, lotions, and cleansing formulas. It helps water-based products feel thicker and keeps pigments, powders, or droplets evenly dispersed.
What does Ammonium Polyacrylate do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is mainly used as a viscosity builder, stabilizer, and suspending agent in gels, creams, lotions, and cleansing formulas. It helps water-based products feel thicker and keeps pigments, powders, or droplets evenly dispersed.
Is Ammonium Polyacrylate clean?
Clean frameworks often flag it because it is a synthetic, persistent polymer rather than because of routine skin irritation concerns. Residual monomer and trace ammonia controls matter, and it has restricted-list friction in programs that exclude non-biodegradable synthetic polymers.
Is Ammonium Polyacrylate sustainable?
This material is commonly derived from petrochemical feedstocks and is not considered readily biodegradable. Its main sustainability issue is environmental persistence after rinse-off use, especially in water-based personal care products.
Is Ammonium Polyacrylate COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic as a synthetic petrochemical polymer. From a Green Chemistry lens, it scores poorly on renewable sourcing and biodegradability, even though it is effective at low use levels in water-based systems.
How does Ammonium Polyacrylate work chemically?
The molecule is a high-molecular-weight anionic chain bearing carboxylate groups neutralized with ammonium counterions, which hydrate and expand in water to build viscosity and suspend particles. It is often used around 0.1% to 2%, with viscosity performance sensitive to pH, electrolytes, and high levels of cationic ingredients.
Last updated 2026-05-13