Ceteth-24 ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is a nonionic emulsifier and solubilizer used to help oil and water phases stay evenly mixed. It can also improve spread, texture, and rinse-off behavior in creams, lotions, cleansers, and hair products.
What does Ceteth-24 do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is a nonionic emulsifier and solubilizer used to help oil and water phases stay evenly mixed. It can also improve spread, texture, and rinse-off behavior in creams, lotions, cleansers, and hair products.
Is Ceteth-24 clean?
From a clean-beauty perspective, it has friction because it is made through ethoxylation, a process that requires tight purification controls for residual ethylene oxide and 1,4-dioxane. It is generally considered low in irritation in finished formulas, but many stricter standards limit or do not accept this class.
Is Ceteth-24 sustainable?
This material is typically made from a fatty alcohol source plus petrochemical-derived ethoxylation chemistry. It is expected to be biodegradable as a fatty alcohol ethoxylate class, but its renewable profile depends on the fatty alcohol source and its processing footprint is less aligned with low-impact chemistry.
Is Ceteth-24 COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic standards because ethoxylated materials are outside the standard’s allowed chemistry. Green Chemistry alignment is mixed, since the fatty portion may be bio-based, but the ethoxylation step and residual-control requirements are less preferred.
How does Ceteth-24 work chemically?
The molecule is a nonionic ether built from a C16 fatty chain attached to an average of 24 oxyethylene units, giving it strong water compatibility and emulsifying behavior. It is generally stable across typical cosmetic pH ranges and is used in low single-digit percentages, often alongside fatty alcohols, oils, or other emulsifiers to tune viscosity and stability.
Last updated 2026-05-13