What does comedogenic for acne products mean?
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Whether you have acne or not, you have probably seen a lot of skincare products that claim to be non-comedogenic. You might have even bought a product specifically because the label claimed to be non-comedogenic so you assumed that it must be good for acne without knowing what the term actually means. The good news is that you were right in assuming that non-comedogenic is good for acne and as I discuss in my e-course The 8 Steps To Clear Skin, one of the most important steps in getting and staying clear is to use non-comedogenic skincare, household, and personal care products. The bad news is that just because a product claims to be non-comedogenic doesn’t mean it is and it’s nearly impossible to determine which products are actually non-comedogenic even if you use a reliable list like ours. So what exactly does non-comedogenic mean and how do you determine whether or not a product is good for acne or not?
WHAT DOES NON-COMEDOGENIC ACTUALLY MEAN?
In order to understand the term non-comedogenic, first you need to know what a comedo is because that is the root of that term. Comedones are clusters of oil, dead skin cells, and comedogenic ingredients that clog the hair follicles. I call them seeds because they literally look like tiny millet seeds and they are also figuratively the seeds from which all of the seven different forms of acne sprout. So if a product is comedogenic, it contains an ingredient that contributes to the formation of comedones that lead to acne. If a product is non-comedogenic, in theory, it shouldn’t clog your skin or lead to breakouts. There are a few different interpretations of where the word “comedo” comes from. Dr James Fulton whose book Acne RX greatly informs our approach to acne says the word comedo comes from the latin word for “fat maggot” because people historically thought that acne was caused by maggots. If you do a Google search for the etymology of comedo though, most sites say that comedo comes the latin word for “eat up” that was given as a name for parasitic worms that resemble the wormy looking comedones that can be squeezed out of acne lesions.
JUST BECAUSE IT SAYS “NON-COMEDOGENIC” DOESN’T MEAN IT ACTUALLY IS
Unfortunately, the personal care industry is highly unregulated (especially in the United States) so there are lots of terms that can be slapped on product labels without actually being true. Non-comedogenic, hypoallergenic, clean, and non-toxic are just some of the terms that marketers can claim on personal care products without any basis or proof. This FDA article about hypoallergenic claims explains that the term means whatever a company wants it to mean and there is no standard definition or regulations around use of the term. Non-comedogenic claims are just as unregulated and although there have been a few studies performed over the years to determine comedogenicity, they are highly unreliable as I explain in my post Why non-comedogenic products are not necessarily good for acne. The personal care industry in the US is a joke so even if the FDA provided a standard definition and regulations around the term and there were reliable studies that produced a perfect comedogenic ingredient list that accurately listed every ingredient that had the potential to break you out, it still wouldn’t be enough because many products in the United States don’t disclose all of the ingredients in their formulations.
COMEDOGENICITY AND IRRITATION ARE TWO SEPARATE THINGS
I have heard people say that non-comedogenic products are products that don’t irritate your pores and those people are either confused or ignorant because comedogenicity and irritation are two separate things. Comedogenicity refers to the tendency of an ingredient in a product to clog your hair follicles and irritation is discomfort or inflammation caused in response to a substance. Congestion can lead to irritation but irritation doesn’t lead to congestion. For example, coconut oil is a highly comedogenic ingredient because it has the potential to clog the follicles and cause breakouts. If you have acne, comedogenic ingredients are one of your triggers, and you use a shampoo that contains even just a tiny bit of coconut oil, you are asking for a breakout on the forehead, sides of the face, and body if you are prone to body acne. But coconut oil is not usually irritating for people’s skin-it doesn’t usually lead to pain or burning or redness. However, if you have a breakout from coconut oil and the lesions become inflamed then the product’s comedogenicity can inadvertently lead to irritation in the form of inflamed acne but the ingredient being comedogenic in and of itself didn’t cause it. On the other hand, a product that is high in glycolic acid can be irritating for the skin and can cause burning or stinging because it’s an acid but it's not going to clog your pores unless the product contains other comedogenic ingredients. In fact, glycolic acid can actually be a really useful ingredient for acne because it unglues comedones through exfoliation so this is a case where a potentially irritating ingredient can actually be really useful to help combat the effects of comedogenic products. So non-comedogenic does not mean it won’t irritate pores and there are ingredients that can be comedogenic without being irritating and vice versa.
DON’T FOLLOW COMEDOGENIC RATINGS OR RANKINGS
You have probably come across lists like this one and this one that rate or rank comedogenicity on a scale of 0-5 with 0 supposedly meaning that an ingredient doesn’t have the potential to clog pores and 5 meaning that it is highly comedogenic. The problem is that the ratings are based on studies that are unreliable for reasons you can read in this post and rating the comedogenic potential of an ingredient completely ignores the fact that every person with acne has a different level of sensitivity to comedogenic ingredients. Different people also recommend different guidelines for following the rankings: some people recommend avoiding ingredients that rank 3-5, some recommend avoiding ingredients that rank 2-5, and some recommend avoiding them altogether. The thing is, acne is a very complex and complicated multifactorial disease: Everyone’s acne triggers are different, how much of a trigger they need to be exposed to and for how long is different, and the time it takes between when they are exposed to a trigger and when they actually notice a visible breakout is different. So even something with a high comedogenic rating might cause a breakout quickly for one person while having no effect on another while an ingredient with a low comedogenic rating might not cause a breakout for most people but may for others.
NON-COMEDOGENIC SKINCARE IS NOT ENOUGH TO CLEAR ACNE
Even if all of your skincare products are non-comedogenic, it is very unlikely that you are going to achieve or maintain clear skin through that measure alone. Acne is a multifactorial disease that is caused by a genetic condition called Retention Hyperkeratosis and triggered by many different internal and external factors like diet and lifestyle that we go over in our e-course so there are very few people who can get completely clear by managing just one type of trigger. Also, even within the non-comedogenic product category, skincare is just one of many types of products that can affect breakouts. Household products like hand soap, personal care products like shampoo, makeup, and even your partner’s and baby’s products can all make contact with your skin and break you out so don’t think that using non-comedogenic skincare products is enough to manage acne.
SO HOW DO I KNOW IF A PRODUCT IS NON-COMEDOGENIC?
Since non-comedogenic claims aren’t reliable, how on earth do you determine which products are acne-friendly? Well, there is no easy or quick way but the first step is to cross reference the ingredients of a product against a list from someone you trust. And that someone shouldn’t just be someone you trust because they seem trustworthy- you should trust them because they have proof that they have actually used the list to clear lots of acne sufferers for significant lengths of time. If you want some help, you can check out my post Tips for finding a good acne professional you can trust. Once you have found a list from someone you trust, follow the last two steps in my post How to make sure a product is acne-friendly.
