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Cosmetic ingredient dictionary

Oleth-20 in cosmetics: what it is and what it does

Oleth-20 is a cosmetic ingredient that lets oil and water mix, so the product can wash dirt away. Open Beauty Facts finds it in 45 products, most often shaving.

By Bravoora teamUpdated Sources checked 2 sourcesHow we check

What does Oleth-20 do in a product?

In a cosmetic product, Oleth-20 lets oil and water mix, so the product can wash dirt away, and cleans the skin, hair or teeth. The EU’s CosIng database lists these jobs for it: surfactant and cleansing.

surfactantcleansing

What other names and numbers does Oleth-20 have?

CAS number
9004-98-2
CosIng reference
77924

Which products contain Oleth-20?

Open Beauty Facts finds Oleth-20 in the ingredient lists of 45 of the 22,021 products it has a list for, most often shaving, shaving gel and deodorants.

  • Shaving6
  • Shaving gel4
  • Deodorants2

Products with it, by country of sale: France 14 · Germany 13 · United States 3 · Turkey 3.

Counted on 13 October 2026 from Open Beauty Facts, which volunteers fill from real packs: it shows where Oleth-20 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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