Sunscreens without drying alcohol

What this label means and how we count it

On this site, “no drying alcohol” means one group is absent from the ingredient list: Alcohol, Alcohol Denat., Ethanol, SD Alcohol and Isopropyl Alcohol. Fatty alcohols are not in that group at all. Cetyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol and Behenyl Alcohol are emulsifiers and structural parts of a formula despite their names, and they do not drop a product off this list — nor do Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol or Butylene Glycol, which are not volatile alcohols whatever their names suggest. The flag comes from whether a name appears in the list. We do not know the concentration, because it does not have to be declared, and declaration order tracks it only roughly. Only products whose ingredient list we have read are included; an unknown list is not evidence of absence. We do not claim volatile alcohol is a problem for everyone — we tell you whether it is in the list.