Miscellaneous Definitions — accessories, trims, tools and general fashion terms from Apparel Search
Lanolin is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. Lanolin's waterproofing property aids sheep in shedding water from their coats, so rain runs off the fleece instead of soaking to the skin. Recovered from the wash water when raw wool is scoured, and then refined, the same wax that protects the sheep becomes an ingredient valued wherever water resistance and skin-compatible lubrication are needed.
Lanolin is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals.
Lanolin's waterproofing property aids sheep in shedding water from their coats.
Lanolin's role in nature is to protect wool and skin from climate and the environment.
Lanolin can also be restored to woolen garments to make them water and dirt repellent, such as for cloth diaper covers.
Lanolin, when mixed with ingredients such as neatsfoot oil, beeswax and glycerol, is used in various leather treatments, for example in some saddle soaps and in leather care products.
The word is derived from Latin lāna ‘wool', and oleum ‘oil'. Lanolin is also occasionally referenced as wool yolk, wool wax, or wool grease.
Lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep breeds that are raised specifically for their wool.
Historically, many pharmacopoeias have referred to lanolin as wool fat (adeps lanae); however, as lanolin lacks glycerides (glycerol esters), it is not a true fat. Lanolin primarily consists of sterol esters instead.
Certain breeds of sheep produce large amounts of lanolin.
Lanolin and its many derivatives are used extensively in both the personal care (e.g., high value cosmetics, facial cosmetics, lip products) and health care sectors such as topical liniments. Lanolin is also found in lubricants, rust-preventive coatings, shoe polish, and other commercial products.
Lanolin extracted in production:
Crude lanolin constitutes about 5–25% of the weight of freshly shorn wool. The wool from one Merino sheep will produce about 250–300 ml of recoverable wool grease. Lanolin is extracted by washing the wool in hot water with a special wool scouring detergent to remove dirt, wool grease (crude lanolin), suint (sweat salts), and anything else stuck to the wool. The wool grease is continuously removed during this washing process by centrifuge separators, which concentrate it into a wax-like substance melting at approximately 38 °C (100 °F).
Lanolin is also used in lip balm and many other products.
Learn about waterproofing textiles & apparel in our fashion industry terminology section.
Learn about the benefits of wool.
A sheep lives outdoors in all weather wearing a coat that must not become a sponge. Lanolin is the animal's answer: the sebaceous glands in the skin secrete this wax continuously, and it works its way along the wool fibers, coating them so water beads and runs off rather than soaking through to the skin. Lanolin's role in nature is waterproofing, and it comes with supporting qualities a living coat needs — it keeps the fibers supple rather than brittle, and it discourages the bacteria and fungi that would thrive in a permanently damp fleece. A fleece heavy with lanolin feels greasy to the hand, and that grease content is a real economic factor: raw wool is bought partly by its clean yield, the weight of usable fiber left after the grease and dirt are washed away.
Recovery happens at scouring, the industrial washing of raw wool. The wash water carries off the lanolin as an emulsion; centrifuges and settling separate the crude wool grease, and refining — washing, bleaching and deodorizing stages — turns it into the pale, purified lanolin of commerce. Nothing about the process is waste disposal in the old sense: wool grease was historically a disposal problem for scouring plants and became, once recovery methods improved, a co-product valuable enough to justify its own refining industry alongside the wool trade.
Refined lanolin's career outside the fleece follows from two properties: it repels water, and it mixes with and softens skin oils in a way few waxes match. It can absorb a substantial amount of water into a stable emulsion while still acting as a barrier, which makes it a base for skin creams, ointments and lip products designed to protect skin and hold moisture in. The same barrier quality serves leather conditioners, which return flexibility to hides, and protective coatings that keep metal from rusting. In wool care itself the circle closes: lanolin treatments and lanolin-based washes are used on wool garments — and notably on wool diaper covers and knitwear — to restore the water resistance and softness that washing gradually strips from the fiber.
For the textile dictionary, lanolin is the point where animal biology becomes an industrial material. It is defined as a wax, not an oil or a fat in the strict chemical sense, secreted by wool-bearing animals and recovered from their fleeces at scouring. Its presence explains why raw wool is greasy, why scouring is necessary before spinning and dyeing, and why finished wool that keeps a trace of its lanolin sheds light rain and feels alive in the hand — the fiber arrives at the mill already engineered by the animal that grew it.
Lanolin is a wax secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. It coats the wool fibers, and its waterproofing property aids sheep in shedding water from their coats.
Lanolin is recovered when raw wool is scoured. The grease washed out of the fleece is separated from the wash water and refined into the purified wax used in products.
Refined lanolin is used in skin creams and ointments for its moisturizing and protective qualities, in leather conditioners, in rust-preventing coatings, and in treatments that restore water resistance and softness to wool garments.