Sericin ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is mainly a skin and hair conditioning film-former, adding a soft feel, light moisture retention, and surface smoothing. It can also support humectancy because its protein structure binds water.
What does Sericin do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is mainly a skin and hair conditioning film-former, adding a soft feel, light moisture retention, and surface smoothing. It can also support humectancy because its protein structure binds water.
Is Sericin clean?
From a clean-beauty perspective, it is generally not a restricted-list ingredient and is usually well tolerated. The main flags are animal origin, non-vegan status, processing quality, and rare sensitivity to residual proteins.
Is Sericin sustainable?
This material is typically recovered from cocoon degumming streams, so it can upcycle a textile byproduct when sourced well. It is biodegradable, but the supply chain carries animal-welfare, water, energy, and trace-processing-residue considerations.
Is Sericin COSMOS-approved?
It can be compatible with COSMOS-natural when the animal-derived sourcing and processing meet the standard, but it is not inherently COSMOS-organic and may not fit vegan standards. Its Green Chemistry profile is mixed, with renewable biological origin and biodegradability on the positive side, and supply-chain ethics plus processing inputs as the main caveats.
How does Sericin work chemically?
The molecule is a water-soluble, serine-rich protein mixture with many polar amino acid groups, which explains its film-forming and water-binding behavior. It is commonly used at low levels in leave-on and rinse-off products, often around 0.1% to 2%, and needs appropriate preservation in water-based formulas because proteins can support microbial growth.
Last updated 2026-05-13