Cosmetic ingredient dictionary

Methylcellulose in cosmetics: what it is and what it does

Methylcellulose is a cosmetic ingredient that makes the product thicker or thinner. Open Beauty Facts finds it in 9 products, most often toothpastes.

By Bravoora teamUpdated Sources checked 2 sourcesHow we check

What does Methylcellulose do in a product?

In a cosmetic product, Methylcellulose makes the product thicker or thinner, holds a powder or a pressed product together and keeps an emulsion from separating. The EU’s CosIng database lists these jobs for it: viscosity controlling, binding, emulsion stabilising and stabilising.

viscosity controllingbindingemulsion stabilisingstabilising

What other names and numbers does Methylcellulose have?

CAS number
9004-67-5
CosIng reference
35332

Which products contain Methylcellulose?

Open Beauty Facts finds Methylcellulose in the ingredient lists of 9 of the 22,021 products it has a list for, most often toothpastes.

  • Toothpastes1

Products with it, by country of sale: Spain 3 · France 2 · Norway 2 · Germany 1.

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

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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