Griffin's method for non-ionic surfactants as described in 1954 works as follows:
where  is the molecular mass of the hydrophilic portion of the molecule, and M is the molecular mass of the whole molecule, giving a result on a scale of 0 to 20.
An HLB value of 0 corresponds to a completely lipophilic/hydrophobic molecule, and a value of 20 corresponds to a completely hydrophilic/lipophobic molecule.
The HLB value can be used to predict the surfactant properties of a molecule:
* < 10 : Lipid-soluble (water-insoluble)
* > 10 : Water-soluble (lipid-insoluble)
* 1 to 3: anti-foaming agent
* 3 to 6: W/O (water in oil) emulsifier
* 7 to 9: wetting and spreading agent
* 13 to 16: detergent
* 8 to 16: O/W (oil in water) emulsifier
* 16 to 18: solubiliser or hydrotrope