Gossypium Herbaceum Seed Oil

Gossypium Herbaceum (cottonseed) oil is a primarily emollient lipid used in leave-on products typically at a few percent up to higher levels, and it is generally well tolerated with low rates of irritation in patch testing for most users. However, as a natural triglyceride oil it can contain minor impurities/oxidation byproducts depending on refinement, and rare contact reactions can occur in highly reactive or eczema-prone patients, so it is not truly inert. For patient safety in compromised skin, I score it as very gentle but not zero. Safety Notes: In commercial skincare, cottonseed oil is often used at very low levels (~0.1–1%) as an emollient/solubilizing carrier within emulsions (lotions, creams, cleansers) and to support skin feel, especially when it is not a hero ingredient. At the high end, it is sold directly as a single-ingredient cosmetic oil and also appears as the predominant base oil in some body oils/balms, reaching 90–100% in leave-on products available to consumers. Rinse-off products typically sit toward the low-to-mid range due to surfactant dilution, while leave-on oils/butters can legitimately approach neat oil levels.