Comedogenic Checker
Paste a product's full ingredient list and this comedogenic checker matches every INCI name against351 source-backed records — Fulton's 1989 screening table plus industry avoid-lists, kept separate and cited rather than blended into fake certainty. Everything runs in your browser; the label you paste is never uploaded or stored.
- Every entry cites its source
- Alias-aware INCI matching
- List-flagged ≠ lab-rated, shown honestly
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.
How this comedogenic checker reads a label
Your pasted list is split into individual names, normalized for case, punctuation and common spelling variants, then matched two ways: canonical names and known INCI aliases. Nothing is inferred from lookalike spellings or ingredient families.
Every match shows its rating range where a numeric screening rating exists, theevidence source with a locator (down to the table and page for Fulton entries), and a plain note on what that evidence can and cannot say. Entries that appear only on industry avoid-lists are labeled exactly that — flagged, not rated — because presenting a list entry as a laboratory number is how most comedogenic checkers quietly mislead. When a name matches nothing, the result saysunknown, which means "not in the reviewed dataset", never "safe".
A printed avoid-list also can't tell you that coconut oil hides inside Cocos Nucifera Oilon a real label. Alias matching is the reason a checker beats Ctrl-F: labels speak INCI, avoid-lists speak common names, and this tool translates between them. See the completepore-clogging ingredients list for everything the dataset covers, and the methodology for how records are reviewed.
What a comedogenic rating measures — and what it can't
The familiar 0–5 comedogenic scale comes largely from rabbit-ear assays: an ingredient, often at 10% concentration, applied under controlled conditions and graded on the comedones produced. The model is deliberately sensitive — useful for ranking raw materials, unreliable as a verdict on a finished moisturizer at 2% inclusion.
That is why this checker's honest job stops at matching and citing. Judgment about a whole formula stays with you — and for persistent breakouts, with a dermatologist; the American Academy of Dermatology'sacne guidanceis a sound starting point.
See the full methodReproducibly positive in the screening model.
The source itself treated this range as borderline.
Not significant under those study conditions.
Entries carried only on industry avoid-lists appear as "list-flagged" — a real warning label used by estheticians, but not a laboratory number, and this checker never pretends otherwise.
Comedogenic checker FAQ
Direct answers about the comedogenic scale, why checkers disagree, and how to use results without over-reading them.
What does comedogenic mean?
Comedogenic literally means comedone-forming — a comedone is the clogged follicle behind blackheads and whiteheads. A comedogenic ingredient is one that showed pore-clogging tendency in screening tests, most famously the rabbit-ear assays summarized by Fulton in 1989.
Is a comedogenic rating of 2 safe?
Ratings 0–1 are usually discussed as low concern and 4–5 as high, with 2–3 in a borderline zone. But the rating describes an ingredient tested alone, often at 10% in a rabbit-ear model — concentration, the full formula and your own skin can all change the practical outcome.
Why do different comedogenic checkers disagree?
Because their underlying lists differ. Some use only Fulton's 1989 table, some add industry avoid-lists, and some copy each other with errors. This checker separates the two evidence types explicitly and cites a source for every entry, so you can see why an ingredient is flagged.
Is comedogenic the same as acnegenic?
Not exactly. Comedogenic refers to clogging follicles into comedones; acnegenic refers to provoking inflamed breakouts, which can happen faster and by different mechanisms. An ingredient can be one, both, or neither.