skincarecheck
INCI ingredient

Sodium Benzoate

Also listed as: Sodium Benzoate+, Sodiúm Benzoate, Sodium Bénzoate, Sodium Benzoaté

A mild preservative, often paired with Potassium Sorbate in products that skip parabens.

What it triggers

  • Vegan originYesno animal source
  • FragranceNonot a perfume ingredient
  • ParabenNonot a preservative of this family
  • SulfateNonot a sulfate surfactant
  • SiliconeNonot a silicone
  • AlcoholNonot a drying alcohol

What it does

Sodium benzoate keeps water-based products from growing mould and bacteria. It works best in slightly acidic formulas, which is why it often appears next to Citric Acid.

It is not a paraben, not a fragrance and not an alcohol, so it leaves all six checks untouched.

Functions: preservative

Products with Sodium Benzoate

in 4,504 products

Showing 24 of 4,504 products with this ingredient, most scanned first.

In the EU ingredient database

Functions listed by CosIng
  • anticorrosive
  • fragrance
  • preservative
  • anticorrosive: Preventing and or inhibiting the corrosion of the packaging material.
  • fragrance: Imparting an odour or taste. Creating a perceivable pleasant smell and/or masking a bad smell.
  • preservative: Exclusively or mainly intended to inhibit the development of micro-organisms in the cosmetic product. All authorised preservatives are substances in the positive list of Annex V to the Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009.

CAS 532-32-1 · EC 208-534-8

EU regulation

Listed in Annex V (ref. 1) of the EU Cosmetics Regulation, maximum concentration a) 2.5% (acid) b) 1.7% (acid) c) 0.5% (acid). a) Rinse-off products, except oral care products b) Oral care products c) Leave-on products V/1

Source: CosIng, European Commission. Informative, no legal value; the regulation text is the reference.

Classification from the INCI name; product lists from Open Beauty Facts.Report a mistake