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Cosmetic ingredient dictionary

Glycol in cosmetics: what it is and what it does

Glycol is a cosmetic ingredient that holds water in the skin or the product. Open Beauty Facts finds it in 101 products, most often razors.

By Bravoora teamUpdated Sources checked 2 sourcesHow we check

What does Glycol do in a product?

In a cosmetic product, Glycol holds water in the skin or the product, makes the product thicker or thinner and dissolves other ingredients. The EU’s CosIng database lists these jobs for it: humectant, viscosity controlling and solvent.

humectantviscosity controllingsolvent

What other names and numbers does Glycol have?

CAS number
107-21-1
EC number
203-473-3
CosIng reference
34128

Which products contain Glycol?

Open Beauty Facts finds Glycol in the ingredient lists of 101 of the 22,021 products it has a list for, most often razors, hair care and shampoos.

  • Razors7
  • Hair care5
  • Shampoos4

Products with it, by country of sale: Spain 30 · France 21 · United States 10 · Germany 6.

Counted on 13 October 2026 from Open Beauty Facts, which volunteers fill from real packs: it shows where Glycol turns up, not how much of the market it is.

On these listsHumectants

Bravoora reads this ingredient for everyone you shop for: an allergy or intolerance, a vegan or vegetarian diet, a calorie or protein goal, and the labels on supplements and skincare too. Build a profile · For dermatologists, dietitians and doctors

Sources

The job, the description and the EU annex entry are CosIng’s; the fragrance allergens are the EU Annex III names Bravoora’s label checker reads; the product counts are Open Beauty Facts’.

  1. European Commission: CosIng cosmetic ingredient database (functions, description, EU annex entry)
  2. Open Beauty Facts: product database, 77,506 products, read 13 October 2026, ODbL

Contains information from Open Beauty Facts, which is made available here under the Open Database License (ODbL). Read the licence · Download this dictionary’s data · How we check

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