Database/Emulsifying Surfactant/PEG-30 Soy Sterol
Mostly petroleum · ISO 16128

Is PEG-30 Soy Sterol natural?

Mostly not. Sterols from soybean oil are natural; the 30-mole ethoxylation needed to make them water-dispersible is petrochemical and is most of the mass.

INCI namePEG-30 Soy Sterol
FunctionEmulsifying Surfactant · Cleansing Surfactant
FeedstockProduced by ethoxylating sterols extracted from soybean oil…

How we scored it

Soy phytosterol ≈414 Da (natural) + 30 EO × 44 = 1320 Da (petrochemical). 414/1734 ≈ 0.24.
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 ethoxylating sterols extracted from soybean oil with 30 moles of ethylene oxide, yielding a plant-derived but mostly petrochemical-mass emulsifier. No significant natural-route alternative to the ethoxylation exists commercially.

In plain English

An emulsifier made from soybean oil sterols reacted with ethylene oxide, used to blend oil and water in skin and hair products. The soy part is natural, but most of its weight is from petroleum-based processing.

CosIng definition: PEG-30 Soy Sterol is a polyethylene glycol derivative of sterols obtained from Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil with an average of 30 moles of ethylene oxide

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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-30 SOY STEROL. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  3. 3PEG-30 SOY STEROL. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=PEG-30%20SOY%20STEROL