How to make sure a product is acne-friendly
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Non-comedogenic is a term that is supposed to mean that a product won’t clog pores but as I explain in posts like this one and this one, companies can slap a non-comedogenic label on pretty much any product so it doesn’t actually mean that a product is acne friendly. The FDA and FTC barely regulate personal care products and there are so many comedogenic lists and tools online now that it’s hard to know how to actually determine which products are actually good for acne and which aren’t. The studies that have been done to determine which ingredients are comedogenic are also highly flawed so how in the world are those of us with acne supposed to know which products to use and which ones to avoid? Unfortunately, there is no easy way to determine which products are acne friendly or not but if you willing to put in a little time and effort, it is possible using this multi-step test (just checking ingredients is a great first step but it’s not enough). This is the test we use to test all of our own products and it’s been proven to work by the hundreds of clients we have gotten clear.
FIRST, SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
There are lots of different comedogenic ingredient lists like this one and this one floating around the internet and there are more and more ingredient checking tools like CosDNA and Skincarisma coming out that supposedly help you determine whether or not a product is good for acne. Unfortunately, these are not reliable because they have not been proven to actually work on real life people with acne, they all check for different ingredients, and even if they checked for the right ingredients products in the US don’t always disclose every ingredient in personal care products. So checking ingredients by cross referencing a list or using an online tool is not enough. Also, everyone’s acne is different so the products that are friendly for your acne might not be friendly for someone else’s acne and vice versa. This is why I don’t use the term “acne-safe” that so many other people use because I don’t believe there is such a thing as a product that is completely acne-safe. There might be a product that is safe for you as an individual but it’s impossible to say that any product is safe for all acne. Everyone’s triggers are also different so if you know that some or all comedogenic ingredients are not triggering for your unique type of acne then this is not a process you need to bother with. Lastly, keep in mind that the amount of a trigger that each person has to be exposed to before breaking out is different and everyone’s delayed reaction time is different so it might take you a few days to break out from a product that takes a few months to cause a reaction in someone else.
STEP 1: CHECK THE INGREDIENTS AGAINST A RELIABLE LIST
When you are trying to determine whether a product is acne-friendly or not, the FIRST step (not the final step) is to check the ingredients against a list from someone that has proof their list works. As I explain in my post Should I use a comedogenic ingredient checking tool online?, I recommend checking products against lists like ours that have actually been proven to work on real people with acne rather than ingredient checking tools that check for god knows what ingredients. A few things to keep in mind about this step:
There is no perfect list because nobody could possibly keep up with every ingredient in this world that is acne-friendly. You need to find a list that has been proven to be good enough because it has been used to clear at least a hundred people for extended periods of time.
Even if you find a good enough list, you still cannot use it to determine for sure if a product is acne-friendly or not because there are lots of loopholes in the United States that allow companies to not disclose the actual ingredients in products. Determining comedogenicity can only be proven by following the next 2 steps.
Don’t pay attention to the number ratings that some lists have next to ingredients. These numbers are supposed to indicate the degree to which a product is comedogenic but everyone is triggered by different things in different amounts so we recommend avoiding anything that has the potential to cause a breakout until you are clear regardless of any rating. Once you are clear, you can perform a trigger test on ingredients with lower scores to determine if ingredients with lower ratings are actually triggering for you or not. We discuss how to perform a trigger test as well as lots of other information about comedogenic ingredients in our e-course The 8 Steps To Clear Skin.
STEP 2: PERFORM A TRIGGER TEST
Checking the ingredients on a product against a reliable, good-enough list is just the preliminary step in determining whether or not a product is actually acne-friendly or not. Since it’s impossible for any list to be perfect and there are ingredients that are not required to be disclosed by the FDA, the only way to truly test a product for comedogenicity is to perform what I call a trigger test by testing it on your skin. As I just mentioned, we talk about the proper way to perform an accurate trigger test in our e-course but one of the most important aspects of a trigger test is the next step.
STEP 3: WAIT THE DELAYED REACTION TIME
Another important concept we talk about in our e-course is the delayed reaction time which is just the idea that it takes time for acne to show up once you have been exposed to a trigger and this is one of the most important things to keep in mind when performing a trigger test. When you are testing any type of trigger whether it’s a product or a food, you have to wait enough time before determining whether or not it is an actual trigger for you. This is the same concept as gaining weight. You wouldn’t eat a bunch of food during the holidays and decide the next day that whatever you ate doesn’t cause weight gain because you don’t see a different number on the scale, would you? Of course not. You know intuitively that it takes time for the food you eat to get processed in your body then show up as visible weight on a scale. Well, for some reason, people think that eating chocolate or using a comedogenic product today can cause a pimple tomorrow which is just not logical. Everyone’s delayed reaction time is different but the delayed reaction time for comedogenic products is usually days to weeks so if you notice an increase in breakouts a few days after using a product and that is the only trigger you have been exposed to then you can conclude that whatever product you are testing is comedogenic. If you don’t notice a reaction right away, we recommend our clients wait 2-3 months to be able to determine for certain that a product is acne friendly or not. This seems like a long time but, believe me, it is way less time than it will take you to have to clear up any breakouts that might pop up from having tested a potential trigger too quickly.
