How we scored it
Chlorinated cresol, a phenol derivative (petrochemical); fully synthetic preservative, no natural fragment.
What counts. ISO 16128-2 scores the atoms that remain in the final ingredient. Reagents, solvents, catalysts and protecting groups used during manufacture leave no mass behind and are not counted.
Where it comes from
Produced by chlorinating synthetic para-cresol derived from petrochemical toluene/phenol streams. No natural-extraction route is used commercially.
In plain English
A preservative that protects formulas from bacterial and fungal growth. It is a synthetic chlorinated phenol manufactured from petrochemical feedstocks.
Structure
4-chloro-3-methylphenol
References
- 1ISO 16128-1:2016 and ISO 16128-2:2017 — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and products. ISO, Geneva.
- 2Chlorocresol. PubChem CID 1732. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
- 3CHLOROCRESOL. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
- 4Chlorocresol. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=Chlorocresol