Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate — Frequently Asked Questions

Working pH is the main reason. True soap is the salt of a fatty acid and must be alkaline, around pH 9 to 10, to function at all, and that alkalinity swells and disrupts the skin barrier, which is why soap leaves skin feeling tight. Amino acid surfactants are stable and effective at mildly acidic pH, typically 5 to 6, close to the skin's own surface, and they also interact far less aggressively with skin proteins than sulfates do.

Fine, dense and creamy rather than voluminous and bubbly. Users accustomed to sulfate-based cleansers sometimes read that as weak lather, when it is simply a different foam structure. The after-feel is the compensating characteristic: skin is left soft rather than stripped, which is the reason the material commands a premium in facial and sensitive-skin cleansers.

Yes, and in premium facial cleansers it often is, though it is more expensive than sulfate alternatives. It is also frequently blended with other mild surfactants such as sodium cocoyl isethionate or a betaine to adjust foam character and viscosity. Where it is used as the primary surfactant, formulation pH should be kept mildly acidic, since its performance depends on that.

Glutamic acid, an amino acid, condensed with lauric acid derived from coconut or palm kernel oil, then neutralised with sodium hydroxide. Both halves come from renewable sources and the molecule is readily biodegradable, which is why it is specified so often in natural and clean-beauty positioning as well as for its mildness.