Welcome to our BHB FAQs page, where we address common questions about butyloctyl salicylate (HallBrite® BHB) and its role in sun care formulations. Butyloctyl salicylate is a multifunctional cosmetic ester known for its emollience, solvency, and ability to enhance sunscreen aesthetics and performance.
In this section, we clarify its classification, regulatory status, safety considerations, and its use alongside mineral and chemical UV filters. Whether you’re a formulator, brand owner, or skincare enthusiast, you’ll find science-backed insights into how butyloctyl salicylate supports effective and wearable sun protection.
Explore the FAQs below to learn more!
Should butyloctyl salicylate appear in the active ingredient list for sunscreens given it’s advertised as significantly increasing the in vivo SPF performance of sun protection?
The performance of butyloctyl salicylate in formula is linked to synergistic effects based on properties highlighted in its original patents. For example, butyloctyl salicylate can help prevent the breakdown of certain UV filters, provide increased solvency, and potentially improve film formation on the skin.
Based on this, enhanced in vivo SPF above the 2+ SPF units can be observed in formulations containing butyloctyl salicylate in combination with standard UV filters. (SPF level depends on the specific formulation.) This capability, while valuable, does not signify that butyloctyl salicylate is an active ingredient, as discussed above.
Does Hallstar plan to apply for FDA approval for butyloctyl salicylate as an active sunscreen ingredient? If not, why not?
No. The FDA states that UV filter actives must contribute 2+ SPF units to a formulation. At the recommended use limit in sunscreens of 5%, butyloctyl salicylate does not reach that threshold.
Butyloctyl salicylate is not a sunscreen active ingredient but rather a unique cosmetic ester patented in 1998 based on its ability to provide excellent emollience, solvency and a light, very unique skin feel to finished products.
Hallstar says the recommended use levels of butyloctyl salicylate range from 2% to 10%. Pregnant women are advised to stay away from anything with more than 2% salicylic acid and young children aren’t supposed to use it at all. Should there be a warning for pregnant women and children on products containing butyloctyl salicylate?
Before discussing safe usage ranges, it is important to dig into the question’s premise.
Simply stated,salicylic acid and butyloctyl salicylate are different chemicals. Salicylic acid is an organic fatty acid. Butyloctyl salicylate is an ester. When salicylic acid is reacted to make butyloctyl salicylate, the resulting fatty ester exhibits entirely different properties.
We see similar examples in other industries: aspirin (the long-term analgesic used for decades) is also an ester of salicylic acid; the brand “Pepto Bismol’ is a bismuth derivative to salicylic acid. While over-the-counter products are in a distinctly different category than cosmetics, these examples underscore how derivatives of salicylic acid, created through reaction chemistry, are not comparable to salicylic acid itself in terms of performance.
Hallstar makes usage recommendations for butyloctyl salicylate based on the application. The lower end of the range is best for solvent polarity optimization in sunscreens, while the upper end is best for make-up formulations that require exceptional pigment wetting. Sun care products typically contain 5% or less of this ingredient in order to be globally compliant. Note that, at 5% use in a sun care formulation, butyloctyl salicylate is responsible for no more than 2 SPF units.
Butyloctyl salicylate is a 25-year-old globally approved cosmetic ingredient that meets all safety requirements for use. However, as with all over-the-counter products, pregnant women and parents of young children should consult their physicians for specific product use advice.
Should butyloctyl salicylate be used in mineral sunscreens that claim to be 100% mineral?
Hallstar does not condone the use of inaccurate or overly vague claims on any cosmetic labels, and certainly not on high-impact skin health products like sunscreens. Ideally, consumers would understand that the “100% mineral” language here applies to the active UV filters in the formula, not the other organic chemical ingredients that provide emollience, solvency, fragrance, stability, and preservation. Given that distinction, “100% mineral protection” would be a more accurate claim on these products’ labels.
Using butyloctyl salicylate in sunscreens with mineral filters, however, has proven benefits. Sunscreen manufacturers use butyloctyl salicylate to provide the aesthetic and performance benefits mentioned in the original patent, including improved product effectiveness, safety, and ease of application.
Critics of butyloctyl salicylate say it is very similar to octisalate (octyl salicylate). Some even say that simply adding the butyl group is a way to avoid questions about octisalate and the 11 other chemical sunscreen active ingredients. Can you comment on this and explain what the butyl group does specifically?
Despite similar sounding names, octyl salicylate and butyloctyl salicylate are not similar in chemical structure or behavior. Creating new molecules is a reactive process, not an additive one. That’s why carbon dioxide, as one example, is not just another form of carbon monoxide.
Using the reasoning in the question above, we would expect no difference between drinking ethanol and drinking methanol – their structures are even closer than butyloctyl salicylate and octisalate. But while one will give you a headache, the other could kill you or make you blind. They are not the “same thing.”
There are a number of different distinguishing scientific facts we could cite. For example, the alcohol used in making octisalate is different than the alcohol used to make butyloctyl salicylate, and the octyl group is an 8-carbon molecule, while the butyl octyl group is a 12-carbon molecule that is highly specialized in structure, delivering the unique properties covered in the HallBrite® BHB patent.
But perhaps more fundamentally for sunscreen consumers, butyloctyl salicylate is a solvent (and by FDA’s own rules, not a sunscreen active ingredient) that both enables the UV filter to remain stable and adds more thorough coverage and usable sensoriality to the formulation, increasing the likelihood that the product will be applied regularly.
For the 20+ years it has been in use, butyloctyl salicylate has been proven to not only be safe but critical to making sunscreen coverage more reliable and wearable – and encouraging regular sunscreen use is the greatest contribution we can make to benefit people’s health.