Is retinyl palmitate made from coconut?

Retinyl palmitate is vitamin A joined to palmitic acid. Palmitic acid is usually made from palm oil. Coconut oil contains a little of it, and the label does not say which plant was used.

It is the form of vitamin A added to fortified milk and cereals and to many supplements, and it is a mild relative of retinol in creams and serums.

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: retinyl palmitate · palmitato de retinilo · palmitato de retinol · vitamin a palmitate · palmitato de vitamina a

Products we checked that contain it

2 of the 117 products in the registry. Each one read off the packet by a person, with the date.

What the companies said

Where a company has told us what plant their version comes from, it is on their page, quoted and dated.

• 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.
• La Roche-PosayReplied, didn’t answerAsked on 30 September 2026 which plant the glycerin, capryloyl glycine, caprylyl glycol and palmitate in two products are made from. The brand publishes no contact route for Panama, so the question went to its Argentine consumer desk, which replied the same day that it has no information on products sold in other countries. The question about the ingredients was not answered, so both products stay at “unverifiable”. We have asked which office can answer.

The whole family: Palmitate / palmitic acid
Related names: Isopropyl palmitate · Ascorbyl palmitate · Ethylhexyl palmitate · Cetyl palmitate

Whether this matters for you depends on which kind of coconut allergy you have →

Check a label for this and everything else →

All of coconut’s names

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.