The ingredient narratives reshaping clean beauty.
Dimethicone
aka polydimethylsiloxane · PDMS · dimethylpolysiloxane
Silicone polymer providing slip, adhesion, and wear in colour cosmetics. Under pressure from the silicone-alternatives trend in clean beauty despite an excellent human safety record.
- Slip and glide in eyeshadow and lip formulas
- Wear and adhesion improvement
- Semi-occlusive barrier protection
- Smooth application texture
- Long-wear performance
- Eyeshadow sticks
- Silky primer formulas
- Long-wear lip products
- Foundation vehicles
- Skin prep serums
Functions in anhydrous or low-water colour cosmetics. Immiscible with water unless specifically emulsified. Forms flexible silicone film on skin surface.
Non-biodegradable — environmental persistence concern in rinse-off products. Banned in many clean-beauty brand standards on environmental grounds despite strong human safety profile.
Contested in clean beauty. Excellent human safety profile but environmental persistence drives exclusion. Clean-beauty movement has positioned silicones as problematic despite limited evidence of skin harm at cosmetic use.
The ingredient narratives reshaping clean beauty.
Dimethicone
aka polydimethylsiloxane · PDMS · dimethylpolysiloxane
Silicone polymer providing slip, adhesion, and wear in colour cosmetics. Under pressure from the silicone-alternatives trend in clean beauty despite an excellent human safety record.
- Slip and glide in eyeshadow and lip formulas
- Wear and adhesion improvement
- Semi-occlusive barrier protection
- Smooth application texture
- Long-wear performance
- Eyeshadow sticks
- Silky primer formulas
- Long-wear lip products
- Foundation vehicles
- Skin prep serums
Functions in anhydrous or low-water colour cosmetics. Immiscible with water unless specifically emulsified. Forms flexible silicone film on skin surface.
Non-biodegradable — environmental persistence concern in rinse-off products. Banned in many clean-beauty brand standards on environmental grounds despite strong human safety profile.
Contested in clean beauty. Excellent human safety profile but environmental persistence drives exclusion. Clean-beauty movement has positioned silicones as problematic despite limited evidence of skin harm at cosmetic use.