Cetearyl Alcohol

Production Methods

Cetearyl alcohol is a combination of cetyl and stearyl alcohols. Stearyl alcohol is manufactured by transesterification and distillation of coconut or palm kernel oil using a methanol and a zinc catalyst, followed by hydrogenating the resulting methyl esters using a copper catalyst. The catalysts are removed during the fractional distillation phases, so there are little or no metals in the final product.Cetyl alcohol is manufactured by reducing ethyl palmitate (the waxy ester of palmitic acid) with metallic sodium and alcohol or under acidic conditions with lithium aluminum hydride as a catalyst.The final product melts at a temperature higher than that of the human body, which makes it useful for makeup and other things that are warmed by the skin.

Health Hazard

When used in skin care, cetearyl alcohol is completely safe for skin! Although some alcohol for skin can definitely be drying and irritating, fatty alcohols like cetearyl alcohol are the opposite. In fact, they help nourish and moisturize the skin and help give cosmetics their consistency (otherwise, you’d have a big, gloopy, gloppy mess in every jar!).The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel concluded in 1988 that fatty alcohols, including cetearyl alcohol, are safe for use in cosmetic products. A subsequent 2005 review confirmed these results.In clinical studies, cetearyl alcohol was found to have no significant toxicity and was non-mutagenic.

Flammability and Explosibility

Nonflammable

Physical properties

Cetearyl alcohol has emulsifying and stabilizing properties, and is also known as cetylstearyl alcohol and Lanette O. It is essentially a mixture of two long‐chained stereoisomers, cetyl and stearyl alcohol. These alcohols are components of lanolin.