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Ethylparaben

A paraben preservative — small amounts keep a product free of bacteria, mold, and yeast over its shelf life.

What it does

Ethylparaben is a paraben preservative, close in structure to methylparaben. It is used at low levels, often blended with other parabens, to keep a product free of bacteria, mold, and yeast over its shelf life. It is a preservative rather than a skin active.

The EU’s ingredient database lists it as a preservative (holds back germs in the product).European Commission, CosIng (© European Union, CC BY 4.0) · uses put in plain words by Drop ↗

The evidence, graded

expert consensusSCCS/1348/10 (adopted 14 December 2010, revised 22 March 2011) was asked whether new data changed its view of methyl- and ethylparaben at up to 0.4% for one ester or 0.8% in combination. It kept its previous opinion that their use at the maximum authorized concentrations can be considered safe. Its endocrine concern was with longer-chain parabens such as propylparaben and butylparaben.SCCS 2010 · European Commission SCCS (adopted 14 December 2010) ↗

Graded per the methodology: strong · moderate · emerging · expert consensus. A weak source on a strong claim gets the weaker label.

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