Acne Ingredient Checker
Breakout-prone skin can't trust front-of-pack claims — "non-comedogenic" isn't a regulated term. This acne ingredient checker screens a product's full INCI list against 351 cited records of pore-clogging evidence: historical screening ratings and esthetician avoid-lists, labeled separately. The label you paste never leaves your browser.
- Built for acne-prone routines
- Ratings and avoid-lists, cited
- Private: nothing is uploaded
Check ingredient comedogenicity
Stays on this deviceNot found in this source set
Unknown does not mean low concern. Check spelling, alternate INCI names, and other qualified sources.
A screening workflow for acne-prone skin
The checker is step two of a four-step routine that costs nothing and catches most avoidable breakouts before they happen.
- 01
Pull the real label
Use the box or the brand's current product page — not a retailer summary, which often truncates the list where the interesting ingredients live.
- 02
Run the acne ingredient check
Paste the list above. Read stronger and borderline signals first, then list-flagged entries; note where each sits in the ingredient order, since position roughly tracks concentration.
- 03
Weigh leave-on vs rinse-off
A flagged ester in a cleanser that's on skin for thirty seconds is a different bet than the same ester second-listed in a night cream. Leave-on products deserve the stricter read.
- 04
Patch-test the survivor
A week on the jawline or behind the ear tells you more than any table. Introduce one product at a time or a breakout can't be traced to its cause.
Why acne-prone routines need an ingredient checker
The "non-comedogenic" claim on the front of the bottle has no regulated definition and no required test behind it. Meanwhile the ingredients most associated with clogged pores in the screening literature — certain esters, acetylated lanolins, some algae derivatives — appear in products at every price point, including ones marketed to acne-prone skin.
Screening the actual INCI list replaces marketing with evidence. It will not predict a finished formula's behavior on your face — concentration and formulation matter, as the American Academy of Dermatology'sacne skincare guidancestresses — but it reliably tells you which products deserve extra caution before they earn shelf space in a breakout-prone routine.
Browse the full ingredient listRead these first on any leave-on product.
Context call: position on label and product type decide.
Not significant in the screening model.
Entries carried only on esthetician avoid-lists show as "list-flagged" — practice-based caution, not a laboratory number. Unknown means "not in the dataset", never "safe".
Acne ingredient checker FAQ
Short answers on screening products for breakout-prone skin — what a checker can catch, and what only your skin can decide.
How do I check if a product will break me out?
You can't know for certain from a label — but you can screen it. Paste the full INCI list into the checker: it flags ingredients with historical comedogenicity ratings or industry avoid-list entries, with sources. Then patch-test the product on your jawline for a week; your skin is the final referee.
Are 'non-comedogenic' labels regulated?
No. There is no legal definition or required test behind the claim in the US, which is why two 'non-comedogenic' moisturizers can contain very different ingredient risk profiles. Checking the actual ingredient list is more informative than the front-of-pack claim.
Which ingredients most often flag for acne-prone skin?
Classic offenders in the screening literature include isopropyl myristate and several of its ester relatives, acetylated lanolin, and some algae extracts. Rich plant butters and certain oils appear on esthetician avoid-lists too. Position matters: a flagged ingredient in the top five of a leave-on product carries more weight than the same name at the bottom of a rinse-off cleanser.
Is this a fungal-acne checker too?
No — fungal acne (malassezia folliculitis) involves a different mechanism and a different ingredient watch-list (fatty acids, esters and certain oils by carbon chain length). This tool covers comedogenicity evidence; treat fungal-acne screening as a separate check.