Cetearyl Alcohol + Ceteareth 20
Cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 (INCI name Cetearyl Alcohol and Ceteareth-20) is rated 4 on our list, in the high band, and the number is traced: Fulton 1989 graded it 4.
Like every rating here, it is for the raw ingredient tested alone, and a label does not print how much of it a product holds.
Is cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 comedogenic?
Cetearyl Alcohol + Ceteareth 20 is rated 4 on the comedogenic scale, which is the high band.
A common emulsifying wax mixture. Fulton 1989 graded the mixture 4, against 2 for cetearyl alcohol and 2 for ceteareth-20 on their own.
- Comedogenic rating
- 4 out of 5
- Band
- High: Clear plugging in the rabbit-ear test. The first band to check in a leave-on product.
- Where the number comes from
- Traced to Fulton 1989. The section on who rated it prints each grade.
- Composition
- Emulsifier Blend
- Also written as
- No common variants recorded
What a 4 means in practice
A 4 or 5 is the top of the scale. In the rabbit-ear test, Fulton 1989 counted 4 to 5 as a clear positive: the ingredient plugged the follicles, and did so repeatably. A person's skin reacts less readily than a rabbit's ear, and a product holds far less of the ingredient than the test did, so treat this band as the first thing to check in anything that stays on your skin. It does not prove the ingredient will cause a breakout. A rinse-off product is on the skin for seconds.
Two things change what this number is worth. Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration, so cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 near the top of a label matters far more than cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 at the bottom. And the rating describes the raw ingredient on its own. A 2006 review in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that a rating for a single ingredient does not reliably predict how a finished formula behaves on human skin. The full story of the scale is here.
Who rated it
Our list gives cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 4. These are the figures the published rabbit-ear studies we have read give it, as printed in each paper's table.
| Paper | Grade | Tested as |
|---|---|---|
| Fulton 1989 | Grade 4 | Tested as Cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 |
Our list's figure is within what these papers report.
Similar names, rated separately
These share a source with cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 or carry it in their name, and each has its own rating on our list. The 4 on this page does not carry over to them, so check the exact name on the label.
What safety reviewers say
The rating above is about pore plugging in a rabbit-ear test. Whether this cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth-20 mixture is safe to use in cosmetics is a separate question. Below is the conclusion of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), a US expert panel, and what the EU ingredient database, CosIng, lists for it. We quote CIR's conclusion as written, read on 1 November 2026.
- Cosmetic Ingredient Review (US)
- CIR has not reviewed this mixture as such, but it has reviewed both parts. For ceteareth-20, in a 2012 review of 369 alkyl PEG ethers, the panel concluded they are “safe in the present practices of use and concentration described in this safety assessment when formulated to be nonirritating”. For cetearyl alcohol, the panel concluded in 1988 that it and four related fatty alcohols are “safe as cosmetic ingredients in the present practices of use”, and a re-review published in 2008 confirmed that. Safety Assessment of Alkyl PEG Ethers as Used in Cosmetics, 2012 (opens in a new tab) ; 1988 report on cetearyl alcohol (opens in a new tab)
- What it does in a product (EU CosIng)
- Listed as CETEARYL ALCOHOL and CETEARETH-20: for cetearyl alcohol, skin conditioning (emollient), surfactant (emulsifying), emulsion stabilising, surfactant (foam boosting), opacifying, surfactant (cleansing), viscosity controlling; for ceteareth-20, cleansing, surfactant (emulsifying), surfactant (cleansing). CosIng entry, first ingredient (opens in a new tab) ; CosIng entry, second ingredient (opens in a new tab)
- EU restrictions
- None. CosIng shows no entry for cetearyl alcohol or for ceteareth-20 in the annexes of the EU Cosmetics Regulation.
What we make of this. CIR's conclusion does not grade pore plugging, so on its own it neither confirms nor contradicts the 4 on our list. A safety review looks at things like irritation, allergy and toxicity at the amounts products use, and the rating is only about pores, so read them side by side.
Common questions
- Is cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 comedogenic?
- Cetearyl Alcohol + Ceteareth 20 is rated 4 on the comedogenic scale, which is the high band.
- Is cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20 non comedogenic?
- No. Cetearyl Alcohol + Ceteareth 20 is rated 4 on the comedogenic scale, which is the high band. That is a published rating for the ingredient rather than a verdict on any product containing it.
- What is cetearyl alcohol + ceteareth 20's comedogenic rating?
- 4 out of 5 on our list. It is classed as Emulsifier Blend.
Sources we checked this rating against
- Kligman AM, Kwong T. “An improved rabbit ear model for assessing comedogenic substances.” British Journal of Dermatology, June 1979;100(6):699–702. (opens in a new tab) The rabbit-ear assay behind published 0 to 5 comedogenicity grades.
- Fulton JE Jr. “Comedogenicity and irritancy of commonly used ingredients in skin care products.” Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, November/December 1989;40(6):321–333. (opens in a new tab) Rabbit ear. Each ingredient at 10 percent in propylene glycol unless stated, applied five days a week for two weeks, and graded 0 to 5 from the width of the follicles, measured by micrometer and under the microscope. The paper counts 0 to 1 as not significant, 2 to 3 as borderline and 4 to 5 as positive. Some grades depended on the supplier of the raw material, and some oils were also tested refined.
- Draelos ZD, DiNardo JC. “A re-evaluation of the comedogenicity concept.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, March 2006;54(3):507–512. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2005.11.1058 (opens in a new tab) Tested finished products on the backs of six people and concluded that “Finished products using comedogenic ingredients are not necessarily comedogenic.”