Sodium Castorate ●
TL;DR. This ingredient functions mainly as an anionic cleansing surfactant and soap-type emulsifier, helping lift oils and build foam in high-pH formats.
What does Sodium Castorate do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient functions mainly as an anionic cleansing surfactant and soap-type emulsifier, helping lift oils and build foam in high-pH formats.
Is Sodium Castorate clean?
Clean frameworks generally view it as a straightforward soap ingredient with no major restricted-list issue. Its main caveat is alkalinity, which can feel drying or sting on compromised skin at higher use levels.
Is Sodium Castorate sustainable?
This material is typically plant-derived from a non-food oilseed crop and is expected to be readily biodegradable. Supply-chain quality matters because crop cultivation and worker conditions can vary by region.
Is Sodium Castorate COSMOS-approved?
It is permitted under COSMOS-natural and can fit COSMOS-organic when the feedstock and processing meet the standard's rules. From a Green Chemistry lens, it scores well on renewable feedstock, simple saponification, and biodegradability, with the usual formulation tradeoff of high pH.
How does Sodium Castorate work chemically?
The molecule is not a single pure species, it is an anionic mixture of C18 hydroxy unsaturated fatty-acid carboxylates formed by saponification. It performs best in alkaline systems around pH 9 to 11, loses solubility in acidic formulas, and can form insoluble salts in hard water or with cationic polymers.
Last updated 2026-05-16