Nylon-12 ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is used as a texture and sensory modifier, adding slip, soft focus, oil absorption, and a powdery finish in makeup, sunscreen, and skin-care formulas.
What does Nylon-12 do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is used as a texture and sensory modifier, adding slip, soft focus, oil absorption, and a powdery finish in makeup, sunscreen, and skin-care formulas.
Is Nylon-12 clean?
Clean-beauty programs often flag it as a synthetic microplastic because it is a persistent, insoluble polymer used as a powder or film component. It is generally low-irritation on skin, so the concern is mainly environmental persistence rather than skin tolerance.
Is Nylon-12 sustainable?
This material is typically made from petrochemical feedstocks and is not readily biodegradable. Fine particles can add to persistent solid polymer load in wastewater and sediments, depending on capture and end-of-life controls.
Is Nylon-12 COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic because it is a petrochemical-derived synthetic polymer. From a Green Chemistry view, it has weak alignment on renewable sourcing and biodegradability, despite being chemically inert in finished formulas.
How does Nylon-12 work chemically?
The molecule is built from repeating 12-carbon aliphatic units linked by amide bonds, giving a semicrystalline, hydrophobic powder with high slip and oil uptake. It is insoluble in water, stable across typical cosmetic pH ranges, and commonly used around 0.5% to 10% depending on whether the formula is a lotion, pressed powder, or color cosmetic.
Last updated 2026-05-13