Characteristics
- INCI
- Hexylene Glycol
- CAS
-
107-41-5
This is the substance number in the Chemical Abstracts Service registry. The CAS number uniquely identifies a substance regardless of language, trade name, or synonyms.
- EC
-
203-489-0
This is the substance number in the European chemical identification system (EC number), used in European regulatory databases including ECHA/CosIng.
- IUPAC
- 2-Methylpentane-2,4-Diol
- Functions
- emulsifying, perfuming, skin conditioning, solvent, surfactant
- Irritancy
-
0-1 / 5
Irritation potential: 0–5, where 5 is the highest irritation rating for the ingredient.
More detail → - Comedogen.
-
0-2 / 5
Comedogenicity index: 0–5. A non-comedogenic ingredient (0–1) is unlikely to cause cosmetic acne.
More detail →
Who it's for
Description
Some ingredients are the glamorous stars of the formula, and some are the backstage crew making sure everything actually works. Hexylene Glycol is very much in the second camp: it helps dissolve ingredients, improves the texture of a product, and makes thick formulas a bit more elegant and easier to spread. If a cream or serum feels smoother than it should for its ingredient list, this little helper may be part of the reason.
Functionally, it belongs to the glycol family, so it can act as a solvent for both water- and oil-friendly ingredients, depending on the recipe. That matters because many active ingredients are fussy little things and do not like to mix well on their own. By helping everything stay nicely blended, hexylene glycol can improve the stability and feel of a product, and it is often used in small amounts rather than as a main event ingredient. It also shows up in some formulas as a viscosity adjuster, which is a fancy way of saying it helps control whether a product pours like a serum or sits like a cream.
There is another trick up its sleeve: hexylene glycol can help preservative systems do their job better. For example, it is part of the preservative blend Lexgard HPO, where it boosts the performance of phenoxyethanol. That does not mean hexylene glycol is a preservative by itself, but it can support the overall antimicrobial system, which helps keep a product safer and more stable over time. In cosmetic chemistry, that kind of teamwork is pretty common, and honestly, a bit underrated.
As for skin tolerance, hexylene glycol is generally used at low levels, but like many glycols it can be a little irritating for very sensitive skin, especially in products left on the skin or around the eye area. Most people will not notice anything dramatic, though, and in many formulas it simply does its quiet job without any drama. So while you will not see hexylene glycol on a product label for its glow-boosting powers, your favorite cream, serum, or cleanser may depend on it more than you think.
More detail
Similar to other glycols, it's a helper ingredient used as a solvent, or to thin out thick formulas and make them more nicely spreadable.
Hexylene Glycol is also part a preservative blend named Lexgard® HPO, where it helps the effectiveness of current IT-preservative, phenoxyethanol.
Products with Hexylene Glycol (5 827 total)
Most often found in Clinique products (120 items)
