Sodium lauryl sulfate: Is it bad & what products is it in?

Clem Choy: Sodium lauryl sulfate is an anionic surfactant, which means it is negatively charged and great at removing oily substances as it is a foaming agent, hence why they’re found in cleaning and laundry products. It is very versatile, very inexpensive, and can be derived from plants.

Some SLS is made from petroleum, but most green or eco companies use a plant-derived sodium lauryl sulfate. And, in fact, plant-based sodium lauryl sulfate is not priced that differently than a petroleum-based SLS. So they are relatively the same costs, and chemically (and performance-wise) are exactly alike.

The key takeaways here are that SLS is:

• Versatile
• Inexpensive
• Can be 100-percent bio or plant derived

So, whether it’s petroleum- or plant-based, the chemical process of making sodium lauryl sulfate is generally the same. You start with a raw material, in this case a natural fat like coconut or palm kernel oil.

You extract the oil from the plant and it becomes what’s known as a triglyceride. You then hydrolyze it and it transforms into a fatty acid.

From there, you functionalize it to turn it into a fatty alcohol before putting it through a sulfation process which turns it into sodium lauryl sulfate.

So, to make it even shorter, SLS goes from a fat or oil to an alcohol to a surfactant.

Sensitive skin groups who have experienced skin irritation from surfactants or other chemicals from soaps and detergents may want to avoid SLS, and opt for a more mild alternative. While it is possible for sodium lauryl sulfate to irritate skin, it is also very unusual.