Mixtures of Guerbet alcohols, their use in cosmetic and/or pharmaceutical preparations, and also cosmetic and/or pharmaceutical preparations comprising mixtures of Guerbet alcohols are described. Of suitability as petroleum jelly substitute are in particular Guerbet alcohol mixtures with a melting range, measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), between −20° C. and +70° C., where the width of the melting range comprises at least 30 temperature degrees and the maximum of the melting range is 35±10° C. These are obtainable for example by reacting a) 55 to 95% by weight of cetylstearyl alcohol, b) 5 to 45% by weight of fatty alcohols with a chain length of from 8 to 22 carbon atoms and c) optionally an aliphatic diol having at least 3 carbon atoms.