Polyquaternium-46 in cosmetics: what it is and what it does

What does Polyquaternium-46 do in a product?

In a cosmetic product, Polyquaternium-46 leaves a thin film on skin, hair or nails, reduces static, so hair stays flat and holds a hairstyle. The EU’s CosIng database lists these jobs for it: film forming, antistatic and hair fixing.

What is Polyquaternium-46?

Polyquaternium-46 is a polymeric quaternary ammonium salt prepared by the reaction of vinylcaprolactam and vinylpyrrolidone with methylvinylimidazolium methosulfate.

CAS number

174761-16-1

CosIng reference

36878

Which products contain Polyquaternium-46?

Open Beauty Facts finds Polyquaternium-46 in the ingredient lists of 5 of the 22,021 products it has a list for.

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

Counted on 13 October 2026 from Open Beauty Facts, which volunteers fill from real packs: it shows where Polyquaternium-46 turns up, not how much of the market it is.

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