Ingredient deep-dive

Polyquaternium: Is It a Microplastic?

Medium concernAcrylate / vinyl polymer

Synthetic cationic polymer family used as a hair conditioner.

Use the app

Scan any product for Polyquaternium in 5 seconds

The MicroPlastics iOS app flags this ingredient and 24 others instantly. Paste a label into the free web ingredient checker first if you want a no-install scan.

Download on the App Store

Polyquaternium, common questions

Is Polyquaternium a microplastic?

Yes: it is classified as a synthetic polymer. Synthetic cationic polymer family used as a hair conditioner.

Related ingredients

Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer

Acrylate / vinyl polymer · High concern

Solid plastic microparticle used as an opacifier and to give body wash and shampoo their pearly look. One of the microplastics the EU restriction was specifically written to capture in rinse-off products.

VP/VA Copolymer

Acrylate / vinyl polymer · Medium concern

Vinyl-pyrrolidone copolymer film-former, same family as PVP.

Polyacrylamide

Acrylate / vinyl polymer · Medium concern

Synthetic acrylic polymer used as a thickener and film-former. The polymer itself is large, but the flag is the residual acrylamide monomer, which the IARC classes as a probable human carcinogen.

PVP (Polyvinylpyrrolidone)

Acrylate / vinyl polymer · Medium concern

Synthetic polymer film-former, commonly in hairspray and brow gels.