Cetyl Alcohol
In plain terms
A fatty alcohol very close to cetearyl alcohol, used to soften skin and stabilize creams. Like its cousin, it is a gentle emollient rather than a drying alcohol, with the same uncommon-allergy footnote.
What the evidence shows
Cetyl alcohol is one of the two fatty alcohols that make up cetearyl alcohol, and on its own it does the same jobs: softening skin and hair, thickening, and holding emulsions together. It is the opposite of a drying alcohol. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review assessed it alongside the other fatty alcohols and found no significant toxicity and no mutagenicity, with the panel noting the close chemical kinship lets data on one fatty alcohol carry over to the others. It is FDA-permitted, used as a food additive, and unrestricted in the EU. As with cetearyl alcohol, the single caveat is contact allergy, which is uncommon and tends to show up in people already using many medicated creams on damaged skin; those allergic to cetyl alcohol usually react to stearyl alcohol too. For everyday use on intact skin it is gentle and well tolerated.
On the label
Listed as cetyl alcohol or hexadecan-1-ol. Not a drying alcohol, and fine for alcohol-free routines. Patch test only if you have a known fatty-alcohol allergy or react to medicated creams.