Sy
Synthetic Wax
Synthetic Wax
A lab-made wax picked for purity and consistency — gives balms, sticks, and rich creams their structure; no skin claim attached.
What it does
Synthetic wax is a lab-made wax chosen for its purity and batch-to-batch consistency. It gives balms, sticks, and rich creams their structure and helps stabilize emulsions. It is a structural texture ingredient that stays on the surface, with no skincare claim attached.
The evidence, graded
expert consensusUS safety reviewers first judged eight fossil and synthetic waxes safe as used in 1984. Looking again in 2026, they kept that verdict, synthetic wax included. It was the most used of the eight, with 15,166 uses listed with the FDA in 2024, and went up to 36% in eyebrow pencils. They had too little data to judge any cosmetic ingredient sprayed on with an airbrush.Expert 2026 · Cosmetic Ingredient Review ↗
Graded per the methodology: strong · moderate · emerging · expert consensus. A weak source on a strong claim gets the weaker label.
Browse all 1238 ingredients — grouped by what they do, each with whatever evidence we can cite.
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