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Cosmetic ingredient dictionary

Lanolin in cosmetics: what it is and what it does

Lanolin is a cosmetic ingredient that softens and smooths the skin. It is not vegan: it comes from sheep's wool. Open Beauty Facts finds it in 140 products, most often lip balms.

By Bravoora teamUpdated Sources checked 2 sourcesHow we check

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What does Lanolin do in a product?

In a cosmetic product, Lanolin softens and smooths the skin, lets oil and water mix, so the product can wash dirt away, and keeps oil and water mixed. The EU’s CosIng database lists these jobs for it: emollient, surfactant, emulsifying, skin conditioning, hair conditioning and antistatic.

emollientsurfactantemulsifyingskin conditioninghair conditioningantistatic

What is Lanolin?

Lanolin is a refined derivative of the unctuous fat-like sebaceous secretion of sheep. It consists of a highly complex mixture of esters of high molecular weight aliphatic, steroid or triterpenoid alcohols and fatty acids.

CAS number
8006-54-0
EC number
232-348-6
CosIng reference
34857

Is Lanolin vegan?

No. Lanolin comes from sheep's wool. It is vegetarian.

VeganNot for youIt comes from sheep's wool.
VegetarianFits youNot meat or fish.

Which products contain Lanolin?

Open Beauty Facts finds Lanolin in the ingredient lists of 140 of the 22,021 products it has a list for, most often lip balms and soaps.

  • Lip balms12
  • Soaps10

Products with it, by country of sale: United States 28 · France 25 · Germany 21 · Spain 10.

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

On these listsSurfactants and cleansersEmollientsEmulsifiersFrom animals and insects

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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