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Cosmetic ingredient dictionary

Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate in cosmetics: what it is and what it does

Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate is a cosmetic ingredient that lets oil and water mix, so the product can wash dirt away. Open Beauty Facts finds it in 7 products, most often hair care.

By Bravoora teamUpdated Sources checked 2 sourcesHow we check

What does Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate do in a product?

In a cosmetic product, Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate lets oil and water mix, so the product can wash dirt away, makes the product thicker or thinner, and leaves a thin film on skin, hair or nails. The EU’s CosIng database lists these jobs for it: surfactant, viscosity controlling, film forming, emulsion stabilising and gel forming.

surfactantviscosity controllingfilm formingemulsion stabilisinggel forming

What other names and numbers does Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate have?

CAS number
9080-79-9, 62744-35-8
CosIng reference
80004

Which products contain Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate?

Open Beauty Facts finds Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate in the ingredient lists of 7 of the 22,021 products it has a list for, most often hair care, shampoos and hair treatments.

  • Hair care2
  • Shampoos1
  • Hair treatments1

Products with it, by country of sale: Germany 2 · France 1 · United States 1 · United Kingdom 1.

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

On these listsSurfactants and cleansers

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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