Database/Cleansing Surfactant/PEG-150 Stearate
Mostly petroleum · ISO 16128

Is PEG-150 Stearate natural?

Mostly not. Oleochemical stearic acid esterified with 150 petrochemical ethylene-oxide units; the very long EO chain dominates total mass.

INCI namePEG-150 Stearate
CAS9004-99-3
FunctionCleansing Surfactant
FeedstockMade from oleochemical stearic acid reacted with about…

How we scored it

Stearoyl (natural, 267 Da) + PEG-150 chain (petrochemical, ~6625 Da); description's 150 mol EO used over the mismatched formula. 267/6892 = 0.04.
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

Made from oleochemical stearic acid reacted with about 150 units of petrochemical ethylene oxide. The supplied one-EO formula/MW contradicts the '150 mol EO' description, so the description is treated as authoritative.

In plain English

A cleansing surfactant combining a natural fatty acid with a very long petroleum-derived ethylene oxide chain. The long chain makes it almost entirely non-renewable by mass.

CosIng definition: Poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl), .alpha.-(1-oxooctadecyl)-.omega.-hydroxy- (150 mol EO average molar ratio)

Natural alternatives with the same function

References

  1. 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.
  2. 2PEG-150 STEARATE. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  3. 3PEG-150 STEARATE. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=PEG-150%20STEARATE