Palmitamide Mea ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is mainly used as a nonionic foam booster, foam stabilizer, and viscosity builder in cleansing formulas. It can also help emulsify oily components and improve the feel of surfactant systems.
What does Palmitamide Mea do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is mainly used as a nonionic foam booster, foam stabilizer, and viscosity builder in cleansing formulas. It can also help emulsify oily components and improve the feel of surfactant systems.
Is Palmitamide Mea clean?
From a clean beauty perspective, this ingredient is usually acceptable but has caveats around ethanolamine-derived chemistry, nitrosamine impurity controls, and potential irritation in high-surfactant formulas. It is less controversial than older diethanolamide materials, but careful supplier documentation still matters.
Is Palmitamide Mea sustainable?
This material is commonly derived from a C16 fatty feedstock that may come from palm or other vegetable oils, so sourcing transparency is relevant. It is expected to be biodegradable, but its sustainability profile depends on certified fatty-acid sourcing and controlled processing.
Is Palmitamide Mea COSMOS-approved?
It is generally treated as a chemically processed fatty ingredient, so COSMOS-natural use would be conditional on allowed feedstocks, permitted processing, and impurity controls, while it is not a strong fit for COSMOS-organic positioning. Its Green Chemistry alignment is mixed, with renewable fatty content and likely biodegradability balanced against synthetic amidation and sourcing caveats.
How does Palmitamide Mea work chemically?
The molecule is a C16 fatty-amide structure with a polar hydroxyethyl group, giving it both oil-compatible and water-interacting character in surfactant blends. It is typically used at low single-digit percentages, is most useful in anionic and amphoteric cleansing systems, and can lose stability under strongly acidic, strongly alkaline, or high-heat processing conditions.
Last updated 2026-05-13