Two names on the label
The EU's CosIng database has an entry for each name. Paraffinum Liquidum is described as white mineral oil (petroleum): a highly refined petroleum mineral oil of saturated hydrocarbons, with carbon numbers mostly from 15 to 50. CosIng gives Mineral Oil as its US INCI name, and paraffinum liquidum and paraffinum perliquidum as its European Pharmacopoeia names.1 Mineral Oil has a separate entry, described simply as a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum.2 Both are in the EU glossary of names used for labelling3, so an EU product may print either. The guide to INCI names explains how such names are set.
This site's checker counts the two as one substance. A list that prints "Paraffinum Liquidum (Mineral Oil)" is read as one ingredient, and when you compare two ingredient lists, Mineral Oil on one and Paraffinum Liquidum on the other count as the same ingredient.
What it does
The two entries list different functions. Mineral Oil has seven, among them skin conditioning - emollient, skin conditioning - occlusive, skin protecting, solvent and hair conditioning2; Paraffinum Liquidum has four: emollient, skin protecting, solvent and antistatic.1 By CosIng's definitions, an occlusive slows the evaporation of water from the skin surface, and skin protecting means "helping to avoid harmful effects to the skin from external factors".4
In the US, mineral oil is also an active ingredient allowed in over-the-counter skin protectant drugs, at 50 to 100 percent, or 30 to 35 percent in combination with colloidal oatmeal.5
What EU law says
Neither Paraffinum Liquidum nor Mineral Oil is named in the annexes of the EU cosmetics regulation.6 CosIng's Mineral Oil entry does point to one Annex II entry, number 778: "Distillates (petroleum), hydrotreated heavy paraffinic, if they contain > 3 % w/w DMSO extract" (CAS 64742-54-7).2 That entry is one of 102 petroleum oils, entries 764 to 865 of Annex II, prohibited in cosmetics on the same condition.6
The condition comes from EU chemicals law. There, the distillate in entry 778 (Annex VI, index number 649-467-00-8) is classified as a category 1B carcinogen with Note L: the classification applies unless the substance contains less than 3% dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) extract, measured by the IP 346 method for polycyclic aromatics in unused lubricating base oils. White mineral oil (CAS 8042-47-5), the substance CosIng describes under Paraffinum Liquidum, has no entry in that annex.7 The prohibition reaches petroleum oils above the 3% line, not mineral oil as a whole.
What reviewers found
Mineral oil is analysed as two fractions: mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH). A 2019 review by Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) covered both, across food, cosmetics and medicinal products. It found a low risk of liver lesions from MOSH retained in the liver, and no indication at present of carcinogenic effects in animals exposed through the skin or by mouth to highly refined mineral oils and waxes.8
A 2017 review by authors from cosmetics companies, a toxicology consultancy and the German cosmetics industry association gathered 13 studies on skin penetration. Most of the mineral oils and waxes stayed in the stratum corneum, the skin's outer layer, with only a minor fraction reaching deeper, and the authors found no evidence that they become systemically available.9
On the label
- Paraffinum Liquidum or Mineral Oil: the same kind of ingredient under its EU and US names.
- Petrolatum, Paraffin, Ceresin and Cera Microcristallina are related petroleum-derived ingredients. This site groups them all as Mineral oil, for people who prefer petroleum-free formulas.
- Grade and refining are not on the list. The petrolatum page explains where EU law puts that information instead.
- Check a whole list with the ingredient checker to see every member of the group it names.