I spent $847 on "non-comedogenic" skincare. My acne got worse every single time. Then I started reading the labels myself, and the truth made me furious enough to build this site.
I am Sarah Chen, a licensed esthetician based in California (CA EST #73492). I have been working with acne prone skin for over a decade. But the truth is, my obsession with comedogenic ingredients started long before I ever picked up a license. It started in 2018, in front of a bathroom mirror, on a Tuesday night I will never forget.
I was breaking out for the seventh time that year. Cysts along my jawline. Tiny itchy bumps across my forehead. Mysterious congestion under my chin that no amount of salicylic acid would touch. I had just finished a 12 week routine using products from a brand that branded itself as the gold standard for acne prone skin. The packaging said "non-comedogenic" on every single bottle. My skin looked worse than when I started.
So I sat down with all 8 of my "acne safe" products and started Googling every ingredient. One by one. Two hours in, I was shaking. My moisturizer had isopropyl myristate listed as the third ingredient. A 5 out of 5 on the comedogenic scale. My serum had algae extract, also a 5. My sunscreen contained coconut oil derivatives. Every single product was loaded with ingredients that no dermatologist would knowingly recommend to someone with my skin type.
That was the moment PoreCloggingCheck was born in my head. It just took me 7 years to build the database it deserved.
This is not a casual side project. PoreCloggingCheck is the most thorough free comedogenic database on the internet, built and maintained by someone who has lived through the consequences of bad ingredient information.
To give every person with acne prone skin the information they need to actually understand what is happening on their face. Not marketing speak. Not influencer guesses. Not affiliate driven product recommendations. Just the science, the data, and the honest assessments most beauty publications will never publish because they would lose advertisers.
Our promise to you is simple. We will never accept brand sponsorships that influence our ratings. We will always cite our sources. We will update our database when new research changes the picture. And we will keep this tool completely free for as long as we can possibly afford to.
Every rating in our database traces back to a peer reviewed source. Fulton 1984, DiNardo 2005, and ongoing dermatology research through 2024. No guesswork.
No brand pays us to rate their ingredients higher. No affiliate deals influence our verdict. If a product contains pore clogging ingredients, we say so, regardless of who makes it.
Every guide, every ingredient lookup, every rating is free to access. No premium tier. No paywall. Skincare information should not be a luxury good.
The database is updated monthly with new research, reformulated products, and emerging studies on fungal acne triggers and skin microbiome science.
Skincare advice is everywhere on the internet. Most of it comes from people with zero formal training. I want you to know exactly who is writing these guides and why I am qualified to do so.
I am not a doctor. I will never claim to be. What I am is someone who has spent over a decade specifically focused on understanding why products break people out, and who has built the tools I wish had existed when I was struggling with my own skin.
If you have spent years trying to clear your skin and nothing has worked, I want you to know I have been there. The frustration of watching a $68 cream do nothing. The hope when you start a new routine. The devastation 3 weeks later when the breakouts return worse than before. The shame of feeling like you must be doing something wrong.
You are not doing anything wrong. The industry has been failing you. Brands lie about being non comedogenic with no testing. Influencers recommend products based on sponsorship deals. Even dermatologists do not always have time to read every ingredient on every product their patients bring in.
This site is my attempt to fix that. To give you a place to verify what you are putting on your face, in plain language, backed by real science, with zero financial interest in pushing any particular product. If just one person clears their skin faster because of something they learned here, the years of building this database have been worth it.
Start with the tools that will save you the most money and frustration. Free ingredient lookups, complete guides, and honest product recommendations.
Use the Ingredient Checker