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Waxes

Carnauba Wax

INCI Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax. Also: Copernicia cerifera wax, Copernicia prunifera wax, Brazil wax, INS 903, E 903.

Calculate a 100 % Carnauba Wax bar

Published values

Saponification value78–95 mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator86.5 mg KOH/g (midpoint)
SAP for NaOH0.0617 g/g
Iodine value
INS (SAP − IV)
Melting point80–86 °C
Unsaponifiable matter50–55 %

A bar made of 100 % Carnauba Wax

Hardness 0 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 0 below 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 0 below 16–48

Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.

Fatty-acid profile

Fatty acidPublished range, %Used
This is a true wax — esters of long-chain acids and alcohols rather than a triglyceride — so a fatty-acid profile in the soapmaking sense does not describe it.

Where these numbers come from

FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), FAOCarnauba Wax - JECFA specifications monograph (FAO JECFA Monographs 1 / FNP 52 Add 6, 51st JECFA 1998) · read 2026-09-20

IDENTIFICATION (Melting range) and PURITY sections (Acid value, Saponification value, Ester value, Unsaponifiable matter, Sulfated ash, Lead); PDF text extracted with pdftotext. Year of specification: 1998.

Values are the JECFA specification limits for refined carnauba wax (prepared at the 51st JECFA, 1998; FNP 52 Add 6): melting range 80-86 C, acid value 2-7 mg KOH/g, saponification value 78-95 mg KOH/g, ester value 71-93 (saponification value minus acid value), unsaponifiable matter 50-55 %, sulfated ash <= 0.25 %, lead <= 2 mg/kg. Carnauba is a wax-ester mixture (C24-C28 acids esterified with C30-C34 alcohols, hydroxy-esters, cinnamic diesters, free acids/alcohols, hydrocarbons and resins); it is not a triglyceride and about half of it is unsaponifiable, so the SAP describes ester+acid content only. No iodine value or fatty-acid composition is given in the monograph (null). INCI name is the customary CosIng entry, not re-verified on CosIng in this session.

This record is part of the open ingredient database (ODbL). Found an error or a better primary source? The dataset is on GitHub; corrections with a document link are welcome.