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INCI ingredient

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

Also listed as: SLS

A strong sulfate cleanser and foaming agent.

What it triggers

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

If a product lists Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, its sulfate-free answer is No. Nothing else changes.

What it does

Sodium lauryl sulfate is a powerful cleanser used in some shampoos, toothpastes and hand soaps. It foams well and removes oil efficiently, which is also why some people find it drying.

It is the classic sulfate: a product that lists it is not sulfate-free.

Functions: surfactant, cleansing agent

Products with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

in 947 products

Showing 24 of 947 products with this ingredient, most scanned first.

In the EU ingredient database

Functions listed by CosIng
  • cleansing
  • denaturant
  • foaming
  • surfactant - cleansing
  • cleansing: Helping to keep the body surface clean.
  • denaturant: Rendering cosmetics unpalatable. Mostly added to cosmetics containing ethyl alcohol to make it unsuitable for ingestion.
  • foaming: Traping numerous small bubbles of air or other gas within a small volume of liquid by modifying the surface tension of the liquid.
  • surfactant - cleansing: Wetting body surfaces, emulsifying or solubilizing oils, and suspending soil (generally, such ingredients contribute to the foaming and lathering properties of cleansing products).

CAS 151-21-3/ 68585-47-7 (generic)/ 68955-19-1 (generic)/ 73296-89-6/ 85586-07-8 · EC 205-788-1/ -/ -/277-362-3/ -

EU regulation

Not on a restricted-substances annex. Listed as an allowed cosmetic ingredient.

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

Sulfate-free instead

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