Is cetrimonium chloride made from coconut?
Cetrimonium chloride is a conditioning ingredient built on a cetyl chain, the same fat that cetyl alcohol is made from. That fat usually comes from palm oil and sometimes from coconut. The label does not say which.
It is what makes a conditioner detangle and stops hair from flying away. It is in many rinse-off and leave-in conditioners.
Usually palm, soy or rapeseed, and refined well past the point where coconut protein survives. It is named on the product page, but it doesn’t decide the verdict by itself — nearly every cosmetic contains it, and if it did, the whole registry would turn amber and the warning would stop meaning anything.
On a label: cetrimonium chloride · cetrimonium bromide · cloruro de cetrimonio
Products we checked that contain it
6 of the 115 products in the registry. Each one read off the packet by a person, with the date.
Contains coconut (2)
- Absolut Repair Molecular Shampoo (300 ml) · L’Oréal ProfessionnelContains Cocoyl, Coco-BetaineChecked September 2026
- Keratin Therapy Lisse Design Maintenance Shampoo (250 ml) · Alfaparf MilanoContains Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Cocoyl, Coco-Glucoside, Coconut, Cocamidopropyl BetaineChecked September 2026
Can’t be verified (2)
No coconut listed (2)
- Dry Shampoo Original Classic Fresh (200 ml) · BatisteNo coconut listed by name · coconut or palm: Cetrimonium, DistearyldimoniumChecked September 2026
- Hair Treatment Moroccan Argan Oil · Laboratorios RivasNo coconut listed by name · coconut or palm: Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, CetrimoniumChecked September 2026
What the companies said
Where a company has told us what plant their version comes from, it is on their page, quoted and dated.
- AvèneReplied, didn’t answerAsked on 30 September 2026 whether the glyceryl laurate in the Cleanance cleansing bar comes from palm kernel, as the rest of the bar does. Avène’s French consumer service replied the next day that it could not process the request, asked which country we are writing from, and said the subsidiary concerned would be in touch. The question itself has not been answered yet, so the bar stays at “unverifiable”.
- L’OréalWaitingL’Oréal owns L’Oréal Paris, L’Oréal Professionnel, Kérastase, Maybelline and Garnier. None of them publishes a working consumer contact form or email for Central America, so on 1 October 2026 one email went to the only address the group’s Central America office prints on its sites, asking it to pass the question to consumer care: which plant the glycerin, fatty alcohols, caprylyl glycol and other fatty-acid ingredients in these products are made from, and the full ingredient list of Magic Retouch, whose can carries none. No reply yet.
The whole family: Cetearyl / cetyl / stearyl alcohol (and ceteareth-, steareth-, -trimonium, -dimonium)
Related names: Cetearyl alcohol · Cetyl alcohol · Stearyl alcohol
Whether this matters for you depends on which kind of coconut allergy you have →
Check a label for this and everything else →
Reactions to refined derivatives vary from person to person. This list helps you ask better questions; your allergist decides what you avoid. Educational only, not medical advice. Always confirm with your allergist.