Glyceryl Stearate/PEG-100 Stearate ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is a nonionic oil-in-water emulsifier that helps blend oils, butters, and waxes into creams and lotions. It also improves texture, viscosity, and emulsion stability.
What does Glyceryl Stearate/PEG-100 Stearate do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is a nonionic oil-in-water emulsifier that helps blend oils, butters, and waxes into creams and lotions. It also improves texture, viscosity, and emulsion stability.
Is Glyceryl Stearate/PEG-100 Stearate clean?
It has clean-standard friction because one component is ethoxylated, a process associated with residual ethylene oxide and 1,4-dioxane controls. In well-manufactured formulas it is usually low-irritation, but many stricter clean frameworks flag it on processing grounds.
Is Glyceryl Stearate/PEG-100 Stearate sustainable?
This material is typically made from fatty-acid feedstocks plus petrochemical-derived ethoxylation chemistry, so sourcing can be mixed. It is not considered a strong fit for low-impact formulation when compared with fully plant-derived, readily biodegradable emulsifier systems.
Is Glyceryl Stearate/PEG-100 Stearate COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic standards because ethoxylated materials are excluded. From a Green Chemistry view, the main limitation is reliance on ethoxylation and petrochemical inputs rather than simpler renewable processing.
How does Glyceryl Stearate/PEG-100 Stearate work chemically?
This ingredient is a nonionic blend of a C18 fatty-acid monoester and an ethoxylated C18 fatty-acid ester, with an HLB typically around 11, making it suited to oil-in-water systems. It is commonly used around 1 to 5 percent, is heated into the oil phase, and generally performs across the usual skin-care pH range when paired with fatty alcohols, gums, or polymeric stabilizers.
Last updated 2026-05-13