Fungal Acne, Seb Derm, Rosacea and Pore Clogging Ingredient Checker

Paste an ingredient list into the box below and pick what you’re checking for. Malassezia (the yeast linked to fungal acne and seb derm), rosacea, pore-clogging (comedogenic) ingredients, or anti-ageing ingredients with real research behind them. The checker reads every single ingredient and shows you both sides. Red and amber are the ones to watch out for, green is the good stuff with research behind it, and every result comes with a quick line on why and a source. The anti-ageing tab is the only one that just grades the good stuff. It works on shampoos, conditioners and scalp serums too, not just face products.

It uses the same rules I screen products with for my seb derm directories. That makes it a little strict on purpose (I’d rather flag something and let you decide). A flag is only a heads up though. Loads of people use flagged products and get on fine with them, so patch test and trust your own skin.

How the checker decides what to flag

Fungal acne and seb derm (malassezia)

For malassezia, red means ingredients the yeast is known to feed on. Thats most plant oils and butters, plus fatty acids and the esters made from them in the C11 to C24 range (laurates, stearates, palmitates, oleates) and polysorbates. Amber means the evidence is thinner or the checkers don’t agree. Fatty alcohols, ferments and lecithin all land there. Nobody has actually tested whether ferments feed the yeast, and some dermatologists say plenty of fungal acne-prone skin gets on fine with them, which is why they stay amber rather than red. The one exception is Vitreoscilla ferment (in La Roche-Posay and Vichy products), which has a small seb derm trial of its own, so it gets a mild green.

Cetearyl alcohol is the tricky one. A 2019 lab study by Dobler and colleagues saw some malassezia growth on it, especially from one species (M. furfur). SkinSort and Folliculitis Scout both flag it, but that one lab study is most of the evidence, so I mark it amber and you make the call. The same study found lanolin barely fed the yeast, and coco-caprylate/caprate fed two of the four species tested, so both get an amber too. MCT oil (caprylic/capric triglyceride) shows up in grey as lab only, because lab studies found it doesn’t feed the yeast and may even slow it down. Petrolatum and mineral oil stay clear. One yeast species grew slowly on them in the lab, but the main dandruff species didn’t, and most fungal acne checkers call them safe. Castor oil is the one plant oil that gets an amber instead of a red, because only one yeast species (M. furfur) could feed on it in two lab studies. C12-15 alkyl benzoate, the sunscreen emollient, gets an amber too, because the checkers disagree on it (its long chains are on the alcohol side, not the acid side). Natural waxes (beeswax, candelilla, carnauba, rice bran and sunflower wax) get an amber as well, since SkinSort says the yeast can break them down but nobody has tested it. Petroleum waxes like microcrystalline wax and paraffin stay clear, the same as petrolatum. Coco-glycerides and olive esters go red, because they’re made from the same fatty acids as coconut and olive oil. Beef tallow (the tallow balm trend) goes red too, since it’s the same kind of fat, and tallow soap (sodium tallowate) gets the soap amber. Neem leaf shows in grey as lab only, while neem oil gets the plant oil red.

Essential oils don’t get flagged in malassezia mode. They’re mostly terpenes rather than the fats in carrier oils, so they aren’t counted as yeast food. Flip over to rosacea mode and they light up.

Seb derm and fungal acne share the first button because they’re driven by the same yeast, so the same ingredients get flagged for both. For a seb derm scalp, the leave-in products are the ones worth checking hardest, because a shampoo rinses off in a minute and a serum sits there all day.

This mode also picks out the ingredients that fight the yeast rather than feed it: ketoconazole, ciclopirox, piroctone olamine, zinc pyrithione and selenium sulfide. They show up in green as “may help seb derm”, each with its source. A green one in a shampoo is good news, but it needs time on the scalp to do anything, so check the label for how long to leave it on before you rinse.

The same American Family Physician review adds a few more greens: coal tar, tea tree oil shampoo, azole antifungals like sertaconazole and climbazole, and the prescription creams pimecrolimus and tacrolimus. Salicylic acid and sulfur go green too, because they help lift the scale even though they don’t kill the yeast. On the other side, squalene (with an e) and lanolin now get an amber, since SkinSort flags both. Squalane with an a is still fine. Lithium gluconate gets a green too (a 288-person trial found it beat ketoconazole cream on the face), and so do Quassia amara and aloe vera, which each have one small seb derm trial. Honey gets a mild green too, from one small study where people left crude honey on for hours. So does propylene glycol (a small scalp trial used 15%, which is far more than most products have), and hydrocortisone gets one for short flare-ups. The prescription creams roflumilast and ivermectin get greens too, and rosemary extract gets a mild one for scalp itch (the extract, not rosemary oil). Myrtle extract and a chlorhexidine scalp rinse get mild greens from dandruff trials too, and sertaconazole cream gets a full green from a review of 8 trials. Econazole and miconazole keep their green for seb derm, but in one small study they did badly for fungal acne on the body, so their notes say so. Green tea gets a mild green here too, from a small review of green tea shampoo for scalp seb derm. Metronidazole (the rosacea cream) gets a mild green with a caveat, because its seb derm trials disagree. Terbinafine cream (the athlete’s foot one) gets a full green, after beating a placebo in a 90-person trial. Hypochlorous acid sprays get a mild green from small seb derm studies, and so does glycyrrhetinic acid (from licorice), after a small shampoo study cut the main dandruff yeasts. Lemongrass oil gets a mild green from a small placebo-controlled dandruff trial (it’s still red in rosacea mode, like every essential oil). They don’t get a green in rosacea mode, because I couldn’t find a rosacea trial.

Rosacea triggers

For rosacea, the list comes from National Rosacea Society patient surveys and the American Academy of Dermatology’s rosacea advice. Alcohol, fragrance, witch hazel and menthol came out on top, with peppermint and eucalyptus close behind, so those are red. Amber covers the stuff that bothers some people and not others, like exfoliating acids, sulfates, dyes and fragrance allergens such as linalool and limonene. In 2023 the EU added dozens more fragrance allergens to the list brands must name on labels, so the checker flags those too, including linalyl acetate, vanillin, benzaldehyde, pinene, terpineol, methyl salicylate, santalol, Iso E Super and Galaxolide.

Everyone’s rosacea is different, so your own triggers might not be on here at all. You might sail through half the red ones too. One tip from the American Academy of Dermatology: pick products labelled fragrance-free rather than unscented, because unscented doesn’t always mean no fragrance was added.

Rosacea mode has green flags as well, for the ingredients with evidence of actually helping. Azelaic acid is the main one you’ll find in shop-bought skincare, and niacinamide gets a green too (one small moisturizer study, so it’s a mild green). Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide go green because the American Academy of Dermatology says mineral sunscreen is the least likely kind to irritate rosacea skin. And if you paste in a prescription cream, it picks out metronidazole, ivermectin, minocycline, brimonidine and oxymetazoline too.

The soothing K-beauty favourites get milder greens. Centella (madecassoside, cica) has one small rosacea trial, panthenol has barrier research on irritated skin, Bifida ferment lysate has a small trial on sensitive skin, and green tea has a review that’s hopeful but thin on human studies. A few popular calming ingredients (Scutellaria baicalensis, mugwort and heartleaf) only have lab or animal research so far. They show up in grey as “lab or animal only”, with the study linked, but they don’t get a green. That doesn’t mean they’re bad for you (the checker just won’t give credit without human evidence).

A few more greens come from trials and from the American Family Physician rosacea review: sulfur, Chrysanthellum indicum (a 246-person trial), licochalcone A and glycyrrhetinic acid from licorice, milk thistle (silymarin), tranexamic acid, Quassia amara, kinetin, honey (a 138-person trial), oat and aloe, timolol eye drops, permethrin cream, parthenolide-free feverfew, potassium azeloyl diglycinate (a gentler azelaic acid), hyaluronic acid (one small open study), ceramides and gentle PHAs like gluconolactone. Plain licorice root extract (Glycyrrhiza glabra) and dipotassium glycyrrhizate don’t get a green, because I couldn’t find a rosacea study of either on the skin. That same review adds to the avoid list too, so acetone, scrubbing grains, astringents like alum, niacin-type ingredients and topical steroids now get flagged. Patch test studies add a few more ambers: gallates, BHT and TBHQ, cocamidopropyl betaine, formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, propolis and balsam of Peru. People with rosacea turn out to be allergic to cosmetic ingredients far more often than people without it, so these are about allergy rather than rosacea itself. The American Contact Dermatitis Society’s Allergens of the Year add a few more ambers of the same kind: lanolin, propylene glycol, the glucoside cleansers (decyl, lauryl and coco glucoside), benzophenone sunscreen filters and sulfites. Oakmoss and treemoss get one too, as classic perfume allergens the EU has restricted. So do the preservatives IPBC and benzalkonium chloride, and the daisy family plants often sold as calming (chamomile, arnica, calendula, yarrow, tansy, dandelion, echinacea and chrysanthemum), which share an allergen group. More patch test ambers: colophony (rosin, in some mascaras and lipsticks), gallates, cocamide DEA, the amidoamine conditioners, shellac, sorbitan sesquioleate and ethylhexylglycerin. Octocrylene and avobenzone get one too, as the chemical sunscreen filters most often behind sun-triggered allergy. Fragrant plant extracts the EU now lists as allergens (lavender, jasmine, rose including rose water, ylang-ylang and a few others) get an amber, while their essential oils stay red. Benzyl alcohol, one of the EU’s original fragrance allergens, and the brightener kojic acid get an amber too, as does royal jelly (bee-product allergies cross over), and the preservative chlorphenesin gets a mild amber for rare allergy and irritation. In Malassezia mode, horse oil (horse fat, the Korean mayu cream) is flagged as an animal fat. Parabens, on the other hand, were named the society’s (non)allergen of the year, so their note says they’re one of the gentlest preservatives. Chilli extract (capsaicin or capsicum, often in lip plumpers) gets an amber too, because it switches on the same heat receptor that makes spicy food flush. Newer cooling agents (menthoxypropanediol, menthone glycerin acetal and the “menthane” coolers) get an amber as well, since they work on the same cold receptor as menthol. Vanillyl butyl ether, the warming agent in some lip plumpers and “hot” masks, gets an amber for the same reason as chilli. Sponge spicules (listed as hydrolyzed sponge, the VT Reedle Shot trend) get the same red as scrubbing grains, because they’re tiny needles made to prick the skin.

Pore-clogging (comedogenic) ingredients

For pore clogging, red means the ingredient was named as an offender in rabbit ear studies by dermatologist James Fulton and colleagues, mostly esters like isopropyl myristate, isopropyl palmitate and ethylhexyl palmitate, plus cocoa butter and acetylated lanolin. Amber covers oils like coconut, wheat germ and apricot kernel that showed up in the early tests but have less behind them. These ratings come from rabbit ears, which Fulton himself called not an ideal model, and a finished product can behave differently to a single ingredient. So treat this mode as a rough guide, not a verdict. Cocoa butter is the one with human studies behind it as well, though they disagree: one found it clogged pores, another found the effect weak.

The green flags in this mode come from the American Academy of Dermatology’s 2024 acne guidelines. Retinoids (adapalene, tretinoin, tazarotene) and benzoyl peroxide get a strong recommendation there, and salicylic acid and azelaic acid a conditional one, which means the evidence is thinner. It also picks out the prescription ones: the antibiotics clindamycin and erythromycin (strongly recommended) and clascoterone (conditional). Dapsone gel gets one as well, from two trials in over 4,000 people, and so does minocycline foam. Spironolactone gel, green tea, bakuchiol and retinal (tested mixed with glycolic acid) get mild ones. So do aloe vera (as an add-on to tretinoin), resveratrol (one small split-face pilot) and sulfur (older trials, mostly mixed with sulfacetamide). Isotretinoin gel and nadifloxacin, both prescription creams in the UK and Europe, get full greens, and so does lincomycin gel. Linoleic acid gets a mild green from a small trial, and so does propolis (from a trial where it was mixed with tea tree oil and aloe). Gluconolactone gets a full green after matching benzoyl peroxide in a 150-person trial, while glycolic acid, lactic acid and zinc (not zinc oxide) get mild greens because their evidence is weaker. There’s also a grey “Tested, did not clog” note for around 70 everyday ingredients that scored 0 or 1 in Fulton’s rabbit ear study (glycerin, polysorbates, PEG-100 stearate, plain glyceryl stearate, kaolin, carbomer and more), so a moisturiser full of them shows you what was actually tested instead of staying blank. In Malassezia mode, azelaic acid gets a mild “may help” for facial seb derm, behind ketoconazole, and ingredients the 2019 Dobler lab study found the yeast can’t feed on (mineral oil, petrolatum, squalane, silicones, polymers and conditioning quats) now show “Tested, no malassezia growth”. Anything the checker recognises but has nothing to say about in a tab, like water, pH adjusters, gentle preservatives and pigments, is listed under “Known, nothing to flag here”, so a blank result never means the checker didn’t read it. On the caution side, the oils Fulton rated 3 out of 5 (sesame, corn, avocado, evening primrose, mink, soybean, shark liver and cottonseed) get an amber, as do oleic acid and the four red dyes that scored 3 in Fulton’s study (D&C Reds 3, 17, 30 and 36; the other reds scored 1 or 2 and aren’t flagged).

Fulton’s 1989 follow-up paper adds a few more to the watch list. Laureth-4 goes red, because he named it as a major offender alongside isopropyl myristate and acetylated lanolin alcohol. Lauric acid and the pigment D and C Red 36 get an amber, since how much they clogged pores depended on what they were mixed with. Later sources list more pore-cloggers from that same 1989 survey (algae extract, myristyl lactate, oleyl alcohol, isocetyl alcohol, oleth-3 and a few others). Those get an amber too, because I couldn’t check the original ratings myself. The 2024 acne guidelines found the evidence for plant extracts, vitamins and chemical peels wasn’t enough to make a recommendation either way. Two of those still get a mild green from small trials of their own: niacinamide, which did about as well as an antibiotic gel, and tea tree oil, which beat a placebo gel.

Anti-ageing ingredients

Anti-ageing mode works the other way round and grades the ingredients that have research behind them for wrinkles, collagen and sun damage. There’s also a grey “Lab or animal only” grade, because loads of K-beauty favourites (mugwort, heartleaf, yuja, mung bean, lotus, birch sap and Korean camellia) have only been tested on skin cells or in the lab so far. That doesn’t mean they don’t work, just that nobody has checked on real faces yet. Red pine, peony, tremella, rice and soy extract get an early grade from small human studies, and the dark spot fighters are graded for pigment rather than wrinkles. Hydroquinone (prescription-only in the UK) and azelaic acid have the strongest evidence, tranexamic acid, Thiamidol, Melasyl and cysteamine have some, and alpha-arbutin, kojic acid, licorice, mulberry and N-acetyl glucosamine are early. You don’t have to paste the label, either. Type everyday names like vitamin C, cica, snail mucin, salmon DNA, copper peptides or Differin, and the checker translates them into the ingredient name on the label.

Strong evidence goes to prescription retinoids like tretinoin, and to sunscreen filters, because a 4.5-year trial found people who wore sunscreen daily showed no detectable increase in skin ageing. Some evidence covers retinol, retinal, pure vitamin C, niacinamide, glycolic acid, lactic acid, alpha lipoic acid, acetyl zingerone, progesterone cream, snail mucin, adenosine, Matrixyl (palmitoyl pentapeptide-4), DMAE, centella, resveratrol and retinyl retinoate (a newer Korean retinoid that beat retinol in a small trial) and oleyl adapalenate (Adapinoid, a gentler adapalene that also beat retinol), which each have at least one human trial. Early goes to bakuchiol, HPR (hydroxypinacolone retinoate, only tested in blends so far), idebenone, methyl estradiolpropanoate (the skin-only oestrogen in some menopause skincare), peptides, retinyl esters like retinyl palmitate, growth factors (EGF), vitamin K2, estriol and estradiol creams, hexylresorcinol, melatonin, PHAs like gluconolactone, madecassoside (from centella), green tea, boswellia, PDRN (salmon DNA), oat beta-glucan, rosehip oil (the famous trial was a supplement, not the oil), collagen creams (the research is on supplements), Argireline (the needle-free Botox peptide), vitamin E (mainly a moisturiser), CoQ10, genistein (soy isoflavone), copper peptide, astaxanthin (the research is mostly on supplements), caffeine (in eye trials the cool gel did most of the work), kinetin, ginseng (the trials were supplements), ectoin, coffeeberry (coffee fruit extract), mandelic acid, ferulic acid (mainly a vitamin C stabiliser), Galactomyces (Pitera), Pro-Xylane (L’Oreal’s in-house figures only), Acmella oleracea (natural Botox, and only temporary), exosomes (tiny studies so far), glutathione (one small split-face trial), bee venom, apple stem cells (maker data only), hyaluronic acid and vitamin C derivatives, where the studies are small or run by the people who make the ingredient.

Anything it doesn’t grade isn’t bad for your skin (it just hasn’t got anti-ageing research the checker knows about). And if you’ve got rosacea too, flip to that tab after, because retinoids and glycolic acid are both on the rosacea list.

Adapalene gets a “some evidence” too, because 0.3% did as well as tretinoin on sun-damaged skin in a 24-week trial. This tab doesn’t have a red list, and that’s on purpose. The thing with real proof behind it for ageing skin is the sun, which is why sunscreen gets a strong grade. I looked for skincare ingredients proven to break down collagen or age your face and couldn’t find any with solid human evidence, so I’d rather flag nothing than scare you off a product. The closest thing is a sun warning: the US FDA says acids like glycolic acid make skin more sensitive to the sun for up to a week, so that note sits on glycolic acid’s result.

Sensitive skin and eczema

These two tabs flag the ingredients most likely to cause a skin allergy or sting. Fragrance and essential oils get red, because fragrance is one of the most common causes of skin allergy (in a 2024 review of European allergy clinics, about 7 in 100 people tested reacted to the main fragrance test mix). Methylisothiazolinone gets red too, because the EU banned it from leave-on products after so many people reacted to it.

Amber covers the fragrance allergens brands have to name on the label, preservatives that let off tiny amounts of formaldehyde, lanolin, daisy family plants like chamomile and calendula, propylene glycol and sulfate cleansers. Most people get on fine with all of these. They’re on the list because if you do react to something, these are the usual suspects.

The eczema tab is a bit stricter. SLS goes red, because eczema skin got more damaged by it and took longer to bounce back in a 2015 study, and olive oil goes amber after it weakened the skin barrier in a 2013 study. It also has green flags for ceramides, colloidal oatmeal, urea and sunflower seed oil, which all have trials behind them.

You might notice cocamidopropyl betaine isn’t flagged. It’s a gentle cleanser that used to get blamed for a lot, but a study of over 80,000 patch tests found most reactions to it were false alarms, and real allergy to it is very rare.

Get the best result

Copy the list off the actual box if you can. Retailer pages and ingredient sites sometimes show an older formula, and I’ve found two different ingredient lists online for the same scalp serum, so the box wins every time.

Paste the whole thing and separate it however you like. Bits in brackets like Aqua (Water) stay together.

Using a few actives at once? My skincare routine checker tells you which products are fine together, which ones to split between morning and night, and whether you’ve doubled up on anything.

It can’t diagnose anything (it just reads labels). If your skin’s flaring and nothing seems to help, a GP or dermatologist is your best bet.

Ingredient checker questions

What do the colours mean?

Red is flagged, so that’s one to watch out for. Amber is worth watching (it might be fine for you, it might not). Green has research behind it. Grey means it was tested and came out fine, or it’s only been tried in a lab so far.

Is squalane fungal acne safe?

Squalane didn’t feed malassezia in the 2019 Dobler lab study, so the checker marks it “Tested, no malassezia growth”.

Is coconut oil fungal acne safe?

The checker flags it. Most plant oils are full of the fatty acids malassezia feeds on, and coconut oil is one of them.

Does it work for seb derm on the scalp?

Yes. Seb derm and fungal acne are driven by the same yeast, so the Malassezia tab works on shampoos, conditioners and scalp serums too. My hair growth ingredient checker has the same seb derm list built in.

Can it tell me if a product will break me out?

No, it just reads labels. A flag is only a heads up. Loads of people use flagged products and get on fine with them, so patch test and trust your own skin.

Sources the checker is built on

Every red, amber and green reason in the checker comes from one of these, or from the rules explained above. Tap the button to see them all, grouped by checker mode.