Et
Ethylhexanediol
Ethyl HexanediolHydrator
Dissolves other ingredients, holds a little water in skin and helps the preservatives do their job.
What it does
It dissolves other ingredients, holds a little water in the skin’s surface and fights microbes a little, which helps the preservatives keep the product from spoiling.
The EU’s ingredient database lists it as a solvent (dissolves other ingredients).European Commission, CosIng (© European Union, CC BY 4.0) · uses put in plain words by Drop ↗
The evidence, graded
expert consensusUS safety reviewers (1994) judged ethyl hexanediol safe as a cosmetic ingredient, then used at 5% or less, and confirmed it in 2011. In pregnant rats, birth defects came only at doses that also harmed the mothers. On skin, undiluted, 1 mL per kg a day had no clear effect on the pups. The reviewers said the doses that did would take kilograms of a cosmetic. In 1991 the US EPA judged its use in insect repellent by pregnant women an unacceptable risk, and makers withdrew every repellent with it.Cosmetic 1994 · Journal of the American College of Toxicology ↗
Graded per the methodology: strong · moderate · emerging · expert consensus. A weak source on a strong claim gets the weaker label.
Also known as
octanediol
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