Pore-Clogging Ingredients: the complete comedogenic list

Among the highest-rated (5) are isopropyl myristate, isopropyl isostearate, myristyl myristate and wheat germ oil. The rating is for the raw ingredient; in a real product the effect depends on the amount and formulation.

Yes — coconut oil rates 4 out of 5 in the published model and breaks out many acne-prone people on the face, even though it is well tolerated on the body and by other skin types.

No. 'Non-comedogenic' is an unregulated claim and is not tested the same way by every brand. The ingredient list plus your own experience is a better guide.

Statistically less likely to clog pores, yes — but skin varies. Even ingredients rated 0–1 can cause problems for some people. The rating is a starting point, not a guarantee.

It is a marketing term used by acne clinics, not a regulated claim — it usually means 'contains nothing on that clinic's pore-clogging list'. Useful as a starting point, but the lists differ from each other and most of them publish no method or source. This page shows you which names carry a published rating and which are only on a list.

Because they appear on the clinic pore-clogging lists but we can find no published comedogenic measurement of them — that covers almost the entire algae and seaweed block. We list them so the checker recognises them on a label, but we do not invent a number. The note on each row says where the name came from.

Nobody has measured it in a comedogenicity assay, as far as we can find. Algae are on the clinic lists because of their iodine content, and high iodide intake is a recognised cause of acneiform eruptions — but that is a different mechanism from a blocked pore, and a cosmetic extract on skin is not a dietary iodide load.