Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate Middel Cleansing Agent No known benefits Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate at a glance Cleansing agent noted for its foaming properties Long history of use in personal care products, with research dating back to the 1940’s Deemed safe by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel Raw material form: white powder or flakes Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate description Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate is a cleansing agent noted for its foaming properties. It has a long history of use in personal care products, with documented research dating back to the 1940s. Suppliers of this ingredient extol its mildness for use in cleansing creams, syndet bar soaps, shampoos, and bath products. When used in skin care formulations, it can also help form emulsions by reducing the surface tension of the substances to be emulsified. However, compared to the sulphosuccinate group of surfactants (which includes the mild isethionates), sulfoacetates are less chemically stable and trickier to formulate with when it comes to creating desired viscosities for products such as shampoo. As such, they’re not used as often or are used just for foaming, not for cleansing. As a raw material, it comes in a white powder or flake form. In 2022, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel re-evaluated their previous assessments where sodium lauryl sulfoacetate was deemed safe for cosmetic use and reconfirmed this status. The new concentration data for sodium lauryl sulfoacetate showed that it is used at up to 2.5% in leave-on products, up to 10.2% in rinse-off products, and up to 8.4% in products diluted for use (such as bubble baths).