What Is Non-Comedogenic? What It Means for Acne-Prone Skin

Most of us have bought a sunscreen just because the back of the tube said "non-comedogenic" in small print. A month later, there are tiny bumps along your jawline anyway. So what is non-comedogenic, if it isn't a promise?

 It means the product was formulated to be less likely to clog your pores. Less likely. Brands don't all test for it the same way, and we couldn't find a single regulator that defines the word. So use it to shortlist products, but don't treat it as a guarantee.

Below, we explain what the label means and where the pore-clogging scores you see online come from, and a simple way to find the product that's really breaking your skin out.

Non-comedogenic meaning, in plain words

Dermatologists call a clogged pore a comedone. It forms when oil (sebum) and dead skin cells get stuck at the opening of a hair follicle. If that stays closed, you get a whitehead. If it's open, you get a blackhead, and the black colour comes from the plug reacting with air, not from dirt. So "comedogenic" means something that causes clogged pores, and "non-comedogenic" means the brand believes its product won't.

People often think "oil-free" and "non-comedogenic" mean the same thing. They don't. Oil-free only tells you there's no oil in the formula, while non-comedogenic tells you the brand expects it won't clog pores, and a product can be one without being the other.

Who decides a product is non-comedogenic?

The brand does. The US FDA has no definition for the claim, and dermatologists writing in JAMA Dermatology in 2018 described it as closer to a marketing technique than a measured standard, because there's no validated test. 

Some brands do run proper tests. In a common test, volunteers who break out easily apply the product on their upper back three times a week for four weeks, and then a dermatologist counts the clogged pores. Other brands skip testing and just check their ingredients against old charts.

Comedogenic vs non-comedogenic: where the 0 to 5 scale comes from

You've probably seen "pore-clogging ingredient" lists. Most of them come from tests done in the 1970s and 80s by two dermatologists, Albert Kligman and James Fulton, who applied ingredients (often at full strength) to the inside of rabbits' ears and scored the clogging from 0 for none to 5 for severe. Rabbit ear skin reacts much faster than human facial skin, which made testing convenient and also produced a lot of false alarms.

The most famous one is petroleum jelly. It was once flagged as pore-clogging, and Kligman himself published a reappraisal in 1996 saying petrolatum isn't comedogenic in rabbits or humans.

There's a bigger issue. A score for one ingredient doesn't tell you much about the final cream, because the amount used makes a huge difference. When Draelos and DiNardo tested ingredients at different strengths, the numbers fell sharply once diluted:

A typical face lotion is mostly water, so few ingredients ever get near those undiluted levels. In the same article, Draelos and DiNardo tested finished products that contained supposedly comedogenic ingredients, such as cocoa butter and isopropyl palmitate, on people prone to back comedones, and concluded that finished products using comedogenic ingredients are not necessarily comedogenic. It was a small study with only a handful of volunteers, but it's the most direct test we have.

Kligman put it bluntly in 1996: you can't tell from reading an ingredient list whether a product will cause acne. Only the product itself on skin tells you that. So don't throw out a moisturiser just because one ingredient scored a 3.

The reverse also holds, honestly. A product with zero flagged ingredients can still clog your pores, because ingredients interact and every person's skin responds differently.

Which non-comedogenic ingredients can you rely on?

Don't trust any list completely. The ratings are still useful for one thing, which is spotting a high-scoring ingredient near the top of the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed from the largest amount to the smallest, so after the first five or so, the amounts are small and usually not worth worrying about.

The Indian habits that matter more than any label

Getting bumps mostly along your hairline and forehead? Check your hair oil before you blame your face cream. Oil from your hair can cause acne on the forehead. A weekly coconut oil champi left on overnight means pure coconut oil sits on your forehead for hours, and coconut oil scored 4 out of 5 on the old scale. Washing it out before bed, or keeping oil to the lengths, is a cheap experiment.

Oils you put straight on your face work the same way. Unrefined til (sesame) oil scored about 3, but refined til oil scored about 1, so even processing can change the result.

Weather plays a part too. On a humid summer day in Mumbai or Chennai, you might put on sunscreen in the morning, add more at lunch, press some compact on top, and sweat through all of it for 10 hours. A product that suits you in a dry Delhi winter may not suit you by July.  

How do you find out what's clogging your pores?

1. If you're breaking out, first stop any product you added in the last two months.

2. Then add your products back one at a time. Use each for about four weeks before deciding, because clogged pores take a few weeks to show up.

3. Before putting a new product on your whole face, try it for a few days on a small patch, like the side of your jaw.

4. Notice where the bumps show up. On the jawline and cheeks, it's usually skincare or makeup. Along the hairline, think hair products. On the chin, your phone or your hands could be the cause.

It's slow, we know. It's also the only test that's run on your skin. 

What to look for in non-comedogenic moisturiser and sunscreen

If you have oily, acne-prone skin, a gel or gel-cream moisturiser usually works best. Look for glycerin or hyaluronic acid near the top of the list, and avoid heavy butters like shea or cocoa butter in the first few ingredients. Don't skip moisturiser just because your skin is oily. The AAD's dermatologists recommend a non-comedogenic moisturiser over your acne treatment at night, because most acne treatments dry the skin.

For non-comedogenic sunscreen, the AAD's acne advice is to choose a broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher with "non-comedogenic" or "won't clog pores" on the label. This matters even more for medium and deep skin tones. A healed pimple can leave a dark mark, and sun makes that mark darker.

All our moisturisers and sunscreens show the full ingredient list, so you can check the first five ingredients yourself. And if blackheads are already the issue, a label won't unclog them, but salicylic acid often helps, which is why we wrote a whole post on what acne needs.

FAQ

Is non-comedogenic the same as oil-free?

No. "Oil-free" is about what's in the formula. "Non-comedogenic" is about whether the brand expects it to clog pores. Some oils, like squalane, scored just 1 out of 5.

Can non-comedogenic products still cause breakouts?

Yes, it can happen. There's no standard test, so each brand backs the claim in its own way, and everyone's skin reacts differently.

Is coconut oil non-comedogenic?

It's one of the higher-rated oils, at 4 out of 5 in older testing. Lots of people use it without problems. But if you're acne-prone and use it directly on your face or leave it in your hair overnight, stop it for a month and see if your skin improves.

Do I need non-comedogenic products if I don't get acne?

Not really. If your skin is clear with what you use now, a label isn't a reason to change anything.