Cetearyl Alcohol
Fatty alcohol / emulsifier · INCI: Cetearyl Alcohol
Reviewed by Elysiana Aguilar, master esthetician
How we read it
Not a pore-clogger. Considered safe for acne-prone skin.
Is Cetearyl Alcohol comedogenic?
No. Cetearyl Alcohol isn't considered pore-clogging, and we read it as safe to use on acne-prone skin. That doesn't make it right for everyone, but congestion isn't the thing to watch for with it.
Why we read it this way
Cetearyl alcohol is a blend of two waxy fatty alcohols, cetyl and stearyl, used to thicken a cream and keep its oil and water from drifting apart. It is one of the most common ingredients in moisturizers. We read it as not pore-clogging.
The nuance
Plenty of lists flag cetearyl alcohol, and we do not. The worry often traces to a ready-made emulsifying wax that pairs it with a second ingredient, or to cetyl alcohol alone, which we read with more caution. Despite the name, it is not drying.
Where it shows up
It turns up in many face and body moisturizers, hair conditioners, cream cleansers, sunscreens and cream makeup, usually in the first half of the ingredient list.
Related ingredients
One ingredient rarely tells the whole story. The acne ingredient checker reads everything in a product at once, and there is more on what comedogenic means. Also in the guides: The types of acne lesions.