A polyurethane for cosmetic preparations, which is obtained by reacting (A) a polyester polyol having two or more hydroxyl groups in each molecule, (B) an aliphatic diol consisting of two hydroxyl groups and an aliphatic hydrocarbon group having 3 to 8 carbon atoms, (C) a carboxyl group-containing diol which has a carboxyl group and two hydroxyl groups in the molecule and has a molecular weight of 100 to 300, (D) a diisocyanate containing at least one compound selected from the group consisting of isophorone diisocyanate, hexamethylene diisocyanate and dicyclohexylmethane-4,4′-diisocyanate, and (E) a chain extender which contains at least one compound selected from the group consisting of water, ethylene diamine and propylene diamine and which has a weight average molecular weight of 50,000 to 300,000.