Nylon-66 ●
TL;DR. It is used as a texturizing powder, bulking agent, absorbent, and soft-focus modifier in makeup, skin care, and hair products. It improves slip, oil pickup, payoff, and a smooth finished feel.
What does Nylon-66 do in a cosmetic formula?
It is used as a texturizing powder, bulking agent, absorbent, and soft-focus modifier in makeup, skin care, and hair products. It improves slip, oil pickup, payoff, and a smooth finished feel.
Is Nylon-66 clean?
Clean frameworks often flag it as a synthetic solid polymer because of microplastic and environmental persistence concerns, even though skin irritation is generally low for inert cosmetic powders. It may appear on retailer restricted lists for rinse-off and some leave-on formats.
Is Nylon-66 sustainable?
It is typically made from petrochemical feedstocks and is not readily biodegradable. As a durable particulate material, it can persist in waterways and creates end-of-life friction for otherwise biodegradable formulas.
Is Nylon-66 COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic standards as a synthetic petrochemical polymer. Its nonrenewable sourcing and persistence fit poorly with Green Chemistry priorities, despite its low reactivity in finished products.
How does Nylon-66 work chemically?
The molecule is a condensation polymer built from alternating six-carbon diamine and six-carbon diacid units linked by amide bonds, giving a high-melting, crystalline, inert powder. In cosmetics it is commonly used as micronized particles at about 1–10% in powders, complexion products, and primers, and it is stable across normal cosmetic pH ranges.
Last updated 2026-05-13