Lilial derives its vegan and vegetarian status from toluene, isobutylene.
| Vegan? Yes | Vegetarian? Yes |
Classifications are made based on the available commercial supply of the ingredient, and are made based on the criteria on our classifications page.
Commercially available lilial is vegan and vegetarian.
Lilial, or butylphenyl methylpropianol, is used as a fragrance ingredient in various shampoos, conditioners, and deodorants. It is commercially produced synthetically, although the exact materials and steps are not published online. Based on at least one Chinese patent, it seems it's possibly manufactured from 4-tert-butylbenzaldehyde which is ultimately synthesized from toluene and isobutylene.
Lilial was recently banned in the European Union following a scientific report that found that although it was safe in single applications at concentrations of 200 parts per million, it was not safe due to the possibility of increased exposure from multiple different product applications. For this reason it is now classifed as a Category 1B reproductive toxicant.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilial
- https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/228987
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32020R1182
- https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-08/sccs_o_213_0.pdf
- https://patents.google.com/patent/CN102627538A/en
- Kwack, S. J., Park, Y. R., Sung, C. R., Kim, S., & Kim, S. B. (2025). P07-07 Investigation of the Endocrine Disrupting Effects of Lilial. Toxicology Letters, 411, S101.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxlet.2025.07.266