Alcohol In Cosmetic Products

Principally, if the alcohol is extracted from grapes or dates it is not permissible.

Rasulullah SAW said, "Khamr (wine) is from these two trees: dates and grapes." (Mishkat: 317).

Rasulullah SAW also said, "Alcohol itself is prohibited and intoxication in every other beverage."(Hidayah: Vol. 4: Page 497).

However, if the alcohol in foods is not from dates or grape extract but from, for example, ethanol which is fermented from sugar cane mollasses and does not intoxicate, then it is permissible.

It is thus not permissible to use cosmetics that contain alcohol from grapes or date extracts. Such cosmetics are impure and Solat with it is invalid. However, if the alcohol is synthetic, it is pure and permissible to use. Solat without washing off such cosmetics will be valid. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to differentiate between genuine and synthetic alcohol. Thus, to be on the safe side, one should rather prefer using cosmetics that are labelled as 'alcohol-free', especially when such cosmetics are easily available.