We all know that clogged pores are one of the major culprits for acne formation and no one wants that. That’s why people are highly cautious with products that have ingredients with high comedogenic rate. In this article, we’ll breakdown on how reliable/accurate this comedogenic rating is and how we can make the best out of this rate for our skincare purchase decision.

Knowing that each ingredient in skincare can have different tendency to clog our pores, the comedogenic rating was created. Comedogenic rating is a scale that shows how likely a specific ingredient can clog your pores. The scale ranges from a number in between 0 – 5, with 0 being non-comedogenic and 5 being the most severely comedogenic:

• 0 – NON-COMEDOGENIC (do not clog pores)
• 1 – SLIGHTLY COMEDOGENIC (very low chance of clogging pores)
• 2 – MODERATELY LOW  COMEDOGENIC (may clog pores for some but be fine for most)
• 3 – MODERATELY COMEDOGENIC (will clog acne prone/oily skin type)
• 4 – FAIRLY HIGH COMEDOGENIC (will clog pores for almost all skin types)
• 5 – HIGHLY COMEDOGENIC (will clog pores)