Alcohol in skincare: friend or foe?

When you see the word alcohol on a skincare label, does it make you wonder how good for your skin, or how natural, the product really is?

I certainly did… until I learnt that alcohol is not always what we think of as “alcohol” – a strong solvent that kills bacteria but leaves your skin so dry that no amount of moisturiser is enough to soothe that tight, parchment-like feeling.

If you are anything like me, you’ll be surprised to learn that not all alcohols are the same. Being able to recognise and distinguish between different alcohols on your skincare label could transform your thinking and challenge some common misconceptions.

Do you see the word alcohol on an ingredients list and immediately assume it must be drying, harsh or stripping? You could be right, and they absolutely can be, but not always.

In skincare, the word “alcohol”  can refer to a very different type of ingredient. And once you know the difference, a skincare labels starts to become a little bit clearer.

So, how do you know which alcohols are your friends and which ones may be less kind to your skin?

The so-called ‘simple’ or solvent alcohols are the ones some people may choose to avoid, especially in leave-on products. These include denatured alcohol (you’ll see it listed as alcohol denat. on your skincare label), ethanol and isopropyl alcohol. These are the more volatile solvent alcohols, which can dry out your skin, cause redness or irritation and, over time, disrupt your skin barrier.

Why use solvent alcohols in skincare products?

Well, in some products, such as hand sanitisers for example, solvent alcohols like ethanol or isopropanol are necessary for the product to function as intended – in this case, to kill germs. That’s the most obvious use. In other products, they may be used to:

• help dissolve other ingredients

• make a product feel lighter or fast-absorbing due to their fast evaporation

• provide a cooling effect

• increase skin permeability to help other ingredients absorb more easily   

• help preserve the product, prevent bacterial contamination and extend shelf-life

You’ll be able to tell if a product contains a relatively high amount of solvent alcohol as it will appear higher up on the ingredients list. Ingredients on product labels are listed in descending order based on their content in the formulation. So, the higher its content, the higher up the list the ingredient will be.

What about the ‘friendly’ alcohols?

The alcohols that can be considered your ‘friends’ are the fatty alcohols. I always picture them as bubbly, chubby, friendly waxy blobs! They are actually solid substances that look like waxy pearls and need to be melted into the formulation.

Fatty alcohols are commonly used in natural skincare as they are usually plant-derived and help improve the texture, stability and feel of natural skincare products as well as provide additional skin benefits. Examples include cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol. They can help to:

• improve consistency and viscosity of a product without heaviness

• improve stability of a product (e.g. help stop an emulsion from separating or a body butter from melting too easily)

• soften and smooth the skin

• help reduce transepidermal water loss

• support the skin barrier

Unlike solvent alcohols, fatty alcohols do not dry out the skin as they do not evaporate. Instead, they stay on the surface of the skin, helping to soften, protect and cushion it.

So, as you can see, not all alcohols are drying. Some can be beautifully skin-softening and extremely useful in natural skincare formulation.

What about Benzyl Alcohol?

One alcohol that I think deserves a special mention is Benzyl Alcohol. You may see it appear on many skincare labels, including natural and organic products, and there is a good reason for that. Benzyl Alcohol can be synthetically derived and used as a preservative or a fragrance component in skincare products, or it can occur naturally in some plants and essential oils (e.g. jasmine and rose).

Regardless of its origin, its use in skincare products is governed by cosmetic safety regulations and international guidelines. It is usually used in very small amounts and you will likely see it listed near the end of the ingredients list. Some brands may include a marker (such as an ‘*’) next to the ingredients that naturally occur in essential oils and hydrosols (flower waters). This can help you to identify whether Benzyl Alcohol is naturally occurring or an added synthetic component. It must be noted that even when Benzyl Alcohol occurs naturally, it still needs to be considered within dermal safety limits. Natural origin does not automatically mean unlimited use.

What about LEORA?

At LEORA we do not intentionally use solvent alcohols in our products. If you see an alcohol listed on a LEORA skincare label, it will usually be a fatty alcohol or Benzyl Alcohol.

Where you see Benzyl Alcohol marked with “*“ on a LEORA label, this will indicate that it naturally occurs in essential oils and hydrosols (flower waters). Where you see Benzyl Alcohol listed without a marker, it means it is contained in a natural preservative product used by us, or by one of our suppliers, to preserve our products or ingredients. It will usually be in tiny amounts and is acceptable in natural and organic skincare formulations.

See my blog post: Does “natural skincare” mean a product is 100% natural?

This is a rare exception where we may use a small amount of a synthetic component because the safety of our products and customers always comes first.

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© LEORA Natural Skincare 2026. The information contained herein is provided for information purposes only; the contents are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents herein. We disclaim, to the full extent permissible by law, all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents herein.