Pore-Clogging Ingredients Checker

INCI stands for International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. It is the standard naming system that regulators require on cosmetic labels. Ingredients above 1% are listed from the highest to the lowest concentration. Below 1%, they can appear in any order. So the first five to seven ingredients make up most of the formula, and anything after the preservative or fragrance is usually below 1%. The order tells you if an active ingredient is there in a useful amount.

Each ingredient you paste is matched to our database of about 14,000 cosmetic ingredients. Each one has a pore-clogging (comedogenic) rating from 0 to 5, an irritation rating from 0 to 5, and a fungal acne flag. When a published test exists, such as the Fulton 1989 study, we use that value and mark it verified. Most cosmetic ingredients were never tested, so for those we estimate the rating from the chemical family and mark it estimated. Every result card shows where its rating comes from.

Cosmetic ingredients often have an INCI name, a chemical name and one or more trade names. Vitamin E can appear as Tocopherol or Tocopheryl Acetate, and Water as Aqua or Eau. The decoder links these names to one ingredient, so it is not counted twice and you see the form that is actually used.

No. Natural is a marketing term, not a regulatory one. Many plant ingredients clog pores or irritate skin. Coconut oil and cocoa butter rate 4 on the comedogenic scale, and essential oils such as lavender and citrus are common contact allergens. Many synthetic ingredients, such as dimethicone and niacinamide, rate low and are well tolerated. Judge each ingredient on its evidence, not on where it comes from. Read more in our guide What Is Clean Beauty?

Yes. An ingredient rated 4 or 5 is a red flag, 2 or 3 is worth watching, and 0 or 1 is clear. Fungal acne triggers, such as fatty acids and esters with C11 to C24 chains, are flagged on their own. Choose Oily or Combination as your skin type to get alerts for these. Concentration matters too: an ingredient near the end of the list carries less risk than one in the first five.

Use it as a guide, not a verdict. The original tests applied pure ingredients to rabbit ears, which react more strongly than human facial skin. A finished product uses each ingredient at a lower level, and the full formula changes how it behaves. A high rating means the ingredient deserves a closer look if you break out easily. It does not mean every product that contains it will clog your pores.

Use the 1% line as a reference. Preservatives such as phenoxyethanol are almost always used at or below 1%, so ingredients listed after them are present in small amounts. Fragrance (Parfum) is another common 1% marker. If a brand promotes an active such as retinol or niacinamide, look for it in the first half of the list. If it comes after the preservative, it is probably below an effective dose.

Fragrance-free means no fragrance ingredients were added. Unscented often means a masking fragrance was added to cover the smell of other ingredients. If your skin is sensitive, look for fragrance-free and check the list for Parfum, Fragrance, essential oils, and Limonene, Linalool, Citronellol or Geraniol. These are common fragrance allergens that EU labeling rules require brands to name.