Glucose

What it is

Glucose is the simplest of the dietary sugars and the one the body runs on. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review's assessment of the sugars records skin conditioning and humectancy as the functions the cosmetics industry reports for this group, which is to say it is there to hold water in the formula. Glucose is also one of the small water-loving compounds the skin makes for itself, part of the natural moisturising factor in the outer layer.

How it shows up on a label

What it does well

• Safe at the levels cosmetics use it

  The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel assessed 25 monosaccharides, disaccharides and related ingredients, glucose among them, and concluded they are safe in the present practices of use and concentration described in the assessment. Many of the group are common dietary sugars, and the panel was satisfied that the well-established oral safety of these compounds could be extrapolated to cosmetic use.

  Strong evidence

• Holds water, though the skin work is a model system

  The closest thing to a skin measurement here is laboratory work on isolated stratum corneum, where mixtures of glucose and salt dissolved at a lower humidity than either compound alone and moved the tissue's lipids and proteins more than either did on its own. That was a mixture in a model system rather than glucose by itself, and not a trial on people.

  Limited evidence

Worth knowing

• Nothing here shows what glucose does on its own

  The one piece of skin-adjacent evidence describes a glucose-and-salt mixture in isolated tissue. Read glucose as a modest humectant that is safe as used, not as an active ingredient.

Where the EU stands

Sources (2)

Every link goes to the original: a journal, a PubMed record or an EU document.

1. [1]
   Safety Assessment of Monosaccharides, Disaccharides, and Related Ingredients as Used in Cosmetics

   International Journal of Toxicology · 2019 · doi:10.1177/1091581818814189

   The Expert Panel assessed 25 monosaccharides, disaccharides and related ingredients - glucose among them, per the CIR quick reference table - and concluded they are safe in the present practices of use and concentration described in the safety assessment. The most commonly reported cosmetic function is skin conditioning; other reported functions are humectant and flavouring agent. Checked 6 September 2026.

2. [2]
   Beyond additivity: a mixture of glucose and NaCl can influence skin hydration more than the individual compounds

   Journal of Colloid and Interface Science · 2022 · doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.12.166

   In isolated stratum corneum, glucose-and-salt mixtures dissolved at lower relative humidity than either compound alone and increased the mobility of the tissue's lipids and proteins more than the individual compounds did. Both compounds occur in the skin's natural moisturising factor. A model system, and a finding about the mixture rather than glucose alone. Checked 6 September 2026.