There are provided a novel hydroxyl compound having proper hydroxyl values which exhibits not only excellent moisturizing ability and emollient ability when it is blended in cosmetics, but also, among others, excellent gloss-holding ability, and a cosmetic comprising said hydroxyl compound. A hydroxyl compound obtained by reacting a di- or higher-valent alcohol with a monovalent carboxylic acid to obtain an ester compound, which is then reacted with dimer acid, characterized in that the di- or higher-valent alcohol is diglycerin, and the monovalent carboxylic acid is a carboxylic acid having 5 to 10 carbon atoms, and a molar ratio among diglycerin, the carboxylic acid having 5 to 10 carbon atoms and dimer acid is 1.0:1.5 to 1.6:0.4 to 0.6.