Body & Beauty / Compounds / Phenethyl alcohol

Phenethyl alcohol on your skin: a safety profile

Context-dependent

Safety profile for Phenethyl alcohol relevant to people.

What is phenethyl alcohol?

Also known as: 2-PHENYLETHANOL, Phenylethyl alcohol, Benzeneethanol, Phenylethanol.

CAS number
60-12-8
Molecular formula
C8H10O
Molecular weight
122.16 g/mol
SMILES
C1=CC=C(C=C1)CCO
PubChem CID
6054

Risk for people

Context-dependent

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Phenethyl alcohol.

AgencyYearClassificationNotes
Unknown——

Regulators apply different standards of evidence — animal-data weighting, exposure-pattern assumptions, epidemiological power thresholds — which is why two scientific bodies can review the same data and reach different conclusions. The disagreement is the data.

Where you encounter phenethyl alcohol

  • Personal Care — perfume, soap, cosmetics
  • Consumer Products — cleaning products, candles

Safer alternatives

Lower-risk approaches that achieve a similar outcome to Phenethyl alcohol:

  • Lower-sensitization structural analog; Unscented formulation
    Trade-offs: Eliminates allergen risk entirely; consumer acceptance varies (some associate scent with cleanliness/efficacy); growing market segment; regulatory advantage in EU (no IFRA compliance needed).
    Relative cost: 1.2-2×

Frequently asked questions

What products contain phenethyl alcohol?

Phenethyl alcohol appears in: perfume (Personal care); soap (Personal care); cleaning products (Consumer products); candles (Consumer products).

See Phenethyl alcohol in the body app

Look up products containing phenethyl alcohol, compare to alternatives, and explore the full data record.

Open in body View raw API data

Sources (1)
  1. PubChem (2026) — database

Reference data, not professional advice. Aggregates publicly available regulatory and scientific data; not a substitute for veterinary, medical, legal, or regulatory advice. Why we built ALETHEIA →