Lanolin Wax

Lanolin Wax is the hard, high-melting fraction left behind when lanolin is split into a liquid and solid part (the runny part becomes lanolin oil).

Chemically, it's made up of mostly big, heavy esters of fatty acids paired with fatty alcohols and sterols. This is why it melts around 45-55°C and behaves like a hard wax rather than an oil.

Formulators use it as a thickener and occlusive emollient in balms, lipsticks, deodorant sticks, and rich creams.

Typical usage concentrations range from 1-25% depending on how much structure the formula needs.

The CIR Expert Panel has assessed this ingredient and found no adverse effects across multi-year exposure studies.

This ingredient may not be fungal acne safe. The Malassezia yeast needs fatty acids roughly 11 - 24 carbons long to grow, and lanolin wax is essentially a reservoir of exact that.

Lanolin has a loud reputation but a modest track record for allergies. Across nearly 44,000 patch-tested dermatitis patients from 2001-2018, 3.3.% reacted positively to lanolin markers. A Danish clinic saw prevalence of allergies rise from 0.45% to 1.81% over twelve years.

In people with healthy skin, lanolin is considered a rare sensitizer and the elevated risk sits with chronic inflammatory skin conditions and broken skin where inflamed skin sensitizes more easily.