Cetyl Alcohol Ethoxylate

Cetyl Alcohol Ethoxylate is a nonionic surfactant made by ethoxylating cetyl alcohol (C16) with ethylene oxide. Changing the EO level moves the product from oil-soluble co-emulsifier toward water-dispersible wetting and detergency grades, so selection starts with the required HLB and the phase the product must live in.

Cetyl alcohol ethoxylates (Ceteth grades) span low-EO lipophilic to high-EO hydrophilic members; confirm the EO level Esteem recommends for your HLB target. Full family context is on the Alkoxylates hub. For grade selection beyond this page, Esteem’s R&D and QA teams work from the application brief rather than a catalogue guess.

Applications

• O/W creams, lotions and sunscreen emulsions.
• Hair conditioners needing cetyl-derived emulsification with lighter feel than cetostearyl systems.
• Co-emulsifier pairs with glyceryl stearate or sorbitan esters.

How to select the grade

• Ceteth-2 style low-EO grades are oil-soluble co-emulsifiers; higher Ceteth grades solubilise and emulsify O/W.
• Use the HLB ladder: lipophilic Ceteth + hydrophilic Ceteth/polysorbate around the required HLB.
• Tell us the oil phase, required HLB and clarity target so the EO level is not guessed.

How to specify on an RFQ

Send the application, the property that must not fail (HLB/emulsion stability, wetting, foam, feel or solubility), target specification, and trial quantity. That lets Esteem match the grade to your test method instead of quoting the nearest catalogue name. Current TDS, SDS and lot COA are shared for qualified enquiries through the document library route.