Body & Beauty / Compounds / Stearyl alcohol

Stearyl alcohol on your skin: a safety profile

Context-dependent

Safety profile for Stearyl alcohol relevant to people.

What is stearyl alcohol?

Also known as: 1-OCTADECANOL, Octadecan-1-ol, 1-Hydroxyoctadecane, Octadecyl alcohol.

CAS number
112-92-5
Molecular formula
C18H38O
Molecular weight
270.5 g/mol
SMILES
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCO
PubChem CID
8221

Risk for people

Context-dependent

Regulatory consensus

1 regulatory bodyhas classified Stearyl 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 stearyl alcohol

  • Personal Care — conditioner, lotion, cream, shaving cream, deodorant

Safer alternatives

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

  • Plant-based oils (jojoba, shea); Squalane
    Trade-offs: Alternative food ingredient; efficacy in target food matrix requires validation; regulatory approval status varies by jurisdiction (FDA GRAS, EU Novel Food, Codex Alimentarius); consumer acceptance testing recommended.
    Relative cost: 1.2-2×

Frequently asked questions

What products contain stearyl alcohol?

Stearyl alcohol appears in: conditioner (Personal care); lotion (Personal care).

See Stearyl alcohol in the body app

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

Open in body View raw API data

Sources (1)
  1. PubChem Compound Database (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 →