Magnesium Chloride

Mineral-derived salt use to enhance product texture

Often used with other texture enhancers to thicken and stabilize formulas

Used in foods to improve texture and hold ingredients together

Plays a role in skin barrier recovery

Magnesium chloride is a salt byproduct used to enhance texture of cosmetic products, often combined with guar-based, cellulose, or gum-based thickeners. Along with magnesium, it’s good source of other trace minerals for skin, such as copper, potassium and selenium.

Older research established that magnesium chloride plays a role with calcium in helping skin’s barrier recover from damage.

This ingredient is also used in foods to help improve texture and allow soy to coagulate to form tofu.

The standard usage level of magnesium chloride in cosmetics is 0.2–1%, depending on formulary needs. Fun fact: magnesium is the primary mineral in Dead Sea water used for numerous therapeutic purposes. Interestingly, magnesium chloride has poor skin penetration in water-based solution since it cannot get through skin’s lipids. Magnesium chloride is considered safe as used in cosmetics.

See: Magnesium, Magnesium Carbonate, Magnesium Stearate, Magnesium Sulfate