Sodium Oleth Sulfate ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is an anionic surfactant used to cleanse, foam, wet, and lift oils and soil in rinse-off products such as shampoos, body washes, and facial cleansers.
What does Sodium Oleth Sulfate do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is an anionic surfactant used to cleanse, foam, wet, and lift oils and soil in rinse-off products such as shampoos, body washes, and facial cleansers.
Is Sodium Oleth Sulfate clean?
Clean-beauty frameworks often flag it because it is ethoxylated and can contain trace 1,4-dioxane if purification and testing are weak. It can also feel drying or irritating at higher active levels, especially without milder co-surfactants.
Is Sodium Oleth Sulfate sustainable?
This material is typically made from a C18 unsaturated fatty alcohol that may be plant, animal, or petrochemical sourced, then modified with petrochemical-derived ethylene oxide and sulfation chemistry. It is generally biodegradable in wastewater, but feedstock traceability, aquatic surfactant load, and impurity control keep its sustainability profile mixed.
Is Sodium Oleth Sulfate COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic because ethoxylated materials are outside the standard. From a Green Chemistry view, biodegradability is a positive, while reliance on ethylene oxide chemistry, sulfation, and residue control weakens alignment.
How does Sodium Oleth Sulfate work chemically?
The molecule is a sodium salt of a sulfated polyethoxylated C18:1 fatty alcohol, with a long hydrophobic chain and a strongly anionic head group. It is typically used in rinse-off cleansing systems at about 3 to 15 percent active surfactant, is most stable around mildly acidic to neutral pH, and is often paired with amphoteric surfactants or polymers to soften skin feel and refine foam.
Last updated 2026-05-16